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LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


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Frontispiece 

ABE   "PURSUED    HIS    STUDIES"    UNDER   THE    GUIDANCE    OF 

HIS   MOTHER. 


The  Story  of 
Young  Abraham  Lincoln 


By 
WAYNE  WHIPPLE 

Author  of  The  Story  of  the  American  Flag,  The  Story  of  the 

Liberty  Bell,  The  Story  of  the  White  House,  The  Story 

of  Young  George  Washington,  the  Story  of 

Young  Benjamin  Franklin,  etc. 


Illustrated 


PHILADELPHIA 

HENRY  ALTEMUS  COMPANY 


Copyright^  1915,  by  Howard  E.  Altemus 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

Introduction" 9 

I.  Abraham  Lincoln^s  Forefathers 15 

II.  Abraham  Lincoln's  Father  and  Mother 20 

III.  The  Boy  Lincoln's  Best  Teacher 29 

rV.  Learning  to  Work 34 

V.  Losing  His  Mother 46 

VI.  School  Days  Now  and  Then 54 

VII.  Abe  and  the  Neighbors 69 

VIII.  Moving  to  Illinois 8G 

IX.  Starting  Out  for  Himself 94 

X.  Clerking  and  Working 107 

XI.  Politics,  War,  Store  Keeping  and  Studying  Law.  .118 
XII.  Buying  and  Keeping  a  Store 132 

XIII.  The  Young  Legislator  in  Love 139 

XIV.  Moving  to  Springfield 154 

XV.  Lincoln  &  Herndon 176 

XVI.  His  Kindness  of  Heart 186 

XVII.  What  Made  the  Difference  Between  Abraham 

Lincoln  and  His  Stepbrother 198 

XVIIL  "No  End  of  a  Boy" 204 

XIX.  Lieutenant  Tad  Lincoln,  Patriot 216 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 
Abe  "Pursued  His  Studies"  Under  the  Guidance 

OF  His  Mother Frontispiece 

His  Stock  of  Books  Was  Small^  But  They  Were 

.  THE  Right  Kind Facing  62 

The  First  Work  Abe  Did  in  That  Neighborhood.  .      "  96 
"Lincoln,"  Said  He/'You  Have  Thrown  Me  Twice, 

But  You  CAN'T  Whip  Me" "  108 

"You  Shan't  Hurt  This  Poor  Old  Indian" "  130 

He  Took  the  Cradle  and  Led  All  the  Way  Round     "  146 
One  of  His  Speeches  Was  Delivered  From  the 

Door  of  a  Harness  Shop "  178 

He  Used  to  Carey  the  Boy  "Pick-a-Back/' "  206 


INTRODUCTION 


Lincoln"  From  New  and  Unusual  Sources 


The  boy  or  girl  wlio  reads  to-day  may  know 
more  about  the  real  Lincoln  than  his  own  chil- 
dren knew.  The  greatest  President's  son,  Rob- 
ert Lincoln,  discussing  a  certain  incident  in  their 
life  in  the  White  House,  remarked  to  the  writer, 
with  a  smile  full  of  meaning : 

*'I  believe  you  know  more  about  our  family 
matters  than  I  do!" 

This  is  because  ''all  the  world  loves  a  lover'' — 
and  Abraham  Lincoln  loved  everybody.  With 
all  his  brain  and  brawn,  his  real  greatness  was 
in  his  heart.  He  has  been  called  ''the  Great- 
Heart  of  the  White  House,"  and  there  is  little 
doubt  that  more  people  have  heard  about  him 
than  there  are  who  have  read  of  the  original 
"Great-Heart"  in  "The  Pilgrim's  Progress." 

Indeed,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  more  millions  in 
the  modern  world  are  acquainted  with  the  story 
of  the  rise  of  Abraham  Lincoln  from  a  poorly 

9 


Introduction 

built  log  cabin  to  the  highest  place  among  "the 
seats  of  the  mighty,"  than  are  familiar  with  the 
Bible  story  of  Joseph  who  arose  and  stood  next 
to  the  throne  of  the  Pharaohs. 

Nearly  every  year,  especially  since  the  Lin- 
coln Centennial,  1909,  something  new  has  been 
added  to  the  universal  knowledge  of  one  of  the 
greatest,  if  not  the  greatest  man  who  ever  lived 
his  life  in  the  world.  Not  only  those  who  *'knew 
Lincoln,"  but  many  who  only  "saw  him  once"  or 
shook  hands  with  him,  have  been  called  upon  to 
tell  what  they  saw  him  do  or  heard  him  say.  So 
heartj^  was  his  kindness  toward  everybody  that 
the  most  casual  remark  of  his  seems  to  be 
charged  with  deep  human  affection — "the  touch 
of  Nature"  which  has  made  "the  whole  world 
kin"  to  him. 

He  knew  just  how  to  sympathize  with  every 
one.  The  people  felt  this,  without  knowing  why, 
and  recognized  it  in  every  deed  or  word  or  touch, 
so  that  those  who  have  once  felt  the  grasp  of  his 
great  warm  hand  seem  to  have  been  drawn  into 
the  strong  circuit  of  "Lincoln  fellowship,"  and 
were  enabled,  as  if  by  "the  laying  on  of  hands," 
to  speak  of  him  ever  after  with  a  deep  and  ten- 
der feeling. 

10 


Introduction 

There  are  many  such  people  who  did  not  rush 
into  print  with  their  observations  and  experi- 
ences. Their  Lincoln  memories  seemed  too  sa- 
cred to  scatter  far  and  wide.  Some  of  them  have 
yielded,  with  real  reluctance,  in  relating  all  for 
publication  in  The  Story  of  Young  Abraham 
LiN^coLN  only  because  they  wished  their  recol- 
lections to  benefit  the  rising  generation. 

Several  of  these  modest  folk  have  shed  true 
light  on  important  phases  and  events  in  Lin- 
coln's life  history.  For  instance,  there  has  been 
much  discussion  concerning  Lincoln's  Gettys- 
burg Address — ^where  was  it  written,  and  did  he 
deliver  it  from  notes  ? 

Now,  fifty  years  after  that  great  occasion, 
comes  a  distinguished  college  professor  who  un- 
consciously settles  the  whole  dispute,  whether 
Lincoln  held  his  notes  in  his  right  hand  or  his 
left — if  he  used  them  at  all ! — while  making  his 
immortal  ''little  speech."  To  a  group  of  vet- 
erans of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  he  re- 
lated, casually,  what  he  saw  while  a  college  stu- 
dent at  Gettysburg,  after  working  his  way 
through  the  crowd  of  fifteen  thousand  people  to 
the  front  of  the  platform  on  that  memorable 
day.    From  this  point  of  vantage  he  saw  and 

11 


Introduction 

heard  everything,  and  there  is  no  gainsaying  the 
vivid  memories  of  his  first  impressions — ^how  the 
President  held  the  little  pages  in  both  hands 
straight  down  before  him,  swinging  his  tall  form 
to  right,  to  left  and  to  the  front  again  as  he  em- 
phasized the  now  familiar  closing  words,  ''of  the 
people — ly  the  people — for  the  people — shall  not 
perish  from  the  earth.'' 

Such  data  have  been  gathered  from  various 
sources  and  are  here  given  for  the  first  time  in  a 
coimected  life-story.  Several  corrections  of 
stories  giving  rise  to  popular  misconceptions 
have  been  supplied  by  Robert,  Lincoln's  only  liv- 
ing son.  One  of  these  is  the  true  version  of 
** Bob's"  losing  the  only  copy  of  his  father's  first 
inaugural  address.  Others  were  furnished  by 
two  aged  Illinois  friends  who  were  acquainted 
with  **Abe"  before  he  became  famous.  One  of 
these  explained,  without  knowing  it,  a  question 
which  has  puzzled  several  biographers — ^how  a 
young  man  of  Lincoln's  shrewd  intelligence 
could  have  been  guilty  of  such  a  misdemeanor, 
as  captain  in  the  Black  Hawk  War,  as  to  make  it 
necessary  for  his  superior  officer  to  deprive  him 
of  his  sword  for  a  single  day. 

A  new  story  is  told  by  a  dear  old  lady,  who  did 

12 


Introduction 

not  wish  her  name  given,  about  herself  when  she 
was  a  little  girl,  when  a  ''drove  of  lawyers  riding 
the  old  Eighth  Judicial  District  of  Illinois," 
came  to  drink  from  a  famous  cold  spring  on  her 
father's  premises.  She  described  the  uncouth 
dress  of  a  tall  young  man,  asking  her  father  who 
he  was,  and  he  replied  with  a  laugh,  "Oh,  that's 
Abe  Lincoln." 

One  day  in  their  rounds,  as  the  lawyers  came 
through  the  front  gate,  a  certain  judge,  whose 
name  the  narrator  refused  to  divulge,  knocked 
down  with  his  cane  her  pet  doll,  which  was  lean- 
ing against  the  fence.  The  little  girl  cried  over 
this  contemptuous  treatment  of  her  "child." 

Young  Lawyer  Lincoln,  seeing  it  all,  sprang  in 
and  quickly  picked  up  the  fallen  doll.  Brushing 
off  the  dust  with  his  great  awkward  hand  he 
said,  soothingly,  to  the  wounded  little  mother- 
heart  : 

"There  now,  little  Black  Eyes,  don't  cry. 
Your  baby's  alive.    See,  she  isn't  hurt  a  bit !" 

That  tall  young  man  never  looked  uncouth  to 
her  after  that.  It  was  this  same  old  lady  who 
told  the  writer  that  Lawyer  Lincoln  wore  a  new 
suit  of  clothes  for  the  first  time  on  the  very  day 
that  he  performed  the  oft-described  feat  of  res- 

13 


Introduction 

cuing  a  helpless  hog  from  a  great  deep  hole  in 
the  road,  and  plastered  his  new  clothes  with  mud 
to  the  great  merriment  of  his  legal  friends.  This 
well-known  incident  occurred  not  far  from  her 
father's  place  near  Paris,  111. 

These  and  many  other  new  and  corrected  inci- 
dents are  now  collected  for  The  Story  of 
Young  Abraham  Lincoln,  in  addition  to  the 
best  of  everything  suitable  that  was  known  be- 
fore— as  the  highest  patriotic  service  which  the 
writer  can  render  to  the  young  people  of  the 
United  States  of  America. 

Wayne  Whipple. 


14 


THE  STORY  OF 
YOUNG  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


CHAPTER  I 


Abraham  Lincoln's  Forefathers 


Lincoln's  grandfather,  for  whom  he  was 
named  Abraham,  was  a  distant  cousin  to  Daniel 
Boone.  The  Boones  and  the  Lincolns  had  inter- 
married for  generations.  The  Lincolns  were  of 
good  old  English  stock.  When  he  was  Presi- 
dent, Abraham  Lincoln,  who  had  never  given 
much  attention  to  the  family  pedigree,  said  that 
the  history  of  his  family  was  well  described  by 
a  single  line  in  Gray's  *' Elegy": 

''The  short  and  simple  annals  of  the  poor." 
Yet  Grandfather  Abraham  was  wealthy  for 
his  day.  He  accompanied  Boone  from  Virginia 
to  Kentucky  and  lost  his  life  there.  He  had  sac- 
rificed part  of  his  property  to  the  pioneer  spirit 
within  him,  and,  with  the  killing  of  their  father, 
his  family  lost  the  rest.    They  were  ''land  poor" 

15 


The  Story  of  Young 

in  the  wilderness  of  the  ''Dark  Bloody  Ground" 
— the  meaning  of  the  Indian  name,  Kentucky. 

Grandfather  Lincoln  had  cleared  a  little  farm 
in  the  woods  and  built  a  substantial  cabin  of 
logs.  One  day 'he  was  out  with  his  three  sons, 
working  in  the  edge  of  the  clearing,  not  far  from 
the  house,  when  some  Indians  crept  near  and 
shot  him  down,  without  the  least  warning,  from 
the  underbrush.  The  three  boys  scattered  in- 
stinctively as  a  brood  of  young  turkeys  when' 
their  mother  is  shot.  Mordecai,  the  eldest, 
rushed  into  the  house  for  a  gun,  Josiah,  the  next 
in  age,  ran  off  to  a  neighboring  stockade  for 
help  to  defend  the  little  home,  and  Thomas  was 
left,  dazed  and  helpless,  beside  the  dead  body  of 
his  father. 

As  soon  as  Mordecai  Lincoln  got  the  gun,  he 
peeped  out  through  a  chink  left  for  the  purpose 
and  saw  an  Indian  picking  up  his  little  brother 
as  if  to  make  off  with  him.  Thrusting  the  rifle 
through  the  primitive  porthole,  he  took  aim  and 
fired  at  a  silver  ornament  on  the  breast  of  the 
savage.  It  was  a  good  shot.  The  Indian  fell  to 
the  ground  and  the  little  boy,  astonished  at  be- 
ing suddenly  released,  ran  toward  the  house  as 
fast  as  his  little  legs  could  carry  him. 

16 


Abraham  Lincoln 

Other  Indians  appeared  from  the  thicket  and, 
with  yells  of  rage,  ran  after  the  frightened 
child.  Mordecai  was  equal  to  the  occasion;  fir- 
ing from  his  point  of  vantage,  he  shot  the  fore- 
most Indians  before  they  could  seize  his  small 
brother,  and  kept  the  others  at  bay  until  poor 
little  Tom  had  come  in  safe,  and  Josiah  had 
brought  men  to  their  relief  from  the  fort. 

But  Mordecai  Lincoln  was  not  satisfied  with 
killing  a  few  Indians  at  the  time  of  his  father's 
death.  Vowing  vengeance  on  the  whole  race  of 
red  men,  he  became  an  Indian  stalker,  shooting 
down  Kentucky  savages  wherever  he  found 
them,  without  so  much  as  waiting  to  see  whether 
they  were  friends  or  foes.  In  this  he  was  as  un- 
reasoning and  cruel  as  the  Indians  who  had  shot 
his  father  without  cause.  Mordecai  shared  the 
pioneer  belief  that  ''The  only  good  Indian  is  a 
dead  Indian.'' 

Because  of  his  bitter  hatred  for  Indians  and 
his  excellent  marksmanship,  Mordecai  became 
sheri:ffi  of  the  county  and  came  to  be  greatly  re- 
spected in  the  community,  which  elected  him  to 
the  State  Legislature.  According  to  the  English 
custom  of  leaving  the  property  to  the  eldest  son, 
which  still  prevailed  in  Virginia,  Mordecai  got 

17 


The  Story  of  Youiig 

his  father's  timber  lands  and  meager  improve- 
ments. This  seemed  right  enough,  for  he  alone 
was  old  enough  to  take  care  of  it. 

Anna  Lincoln,  the  widow  of  Abraham,  the 
pioneer,  left  their  cabin  home  in  Jefferson 
County,  and  moved  to  the  adjoining  county  of 
Washington.  Very  little  is  known  of  her  or  of 
her  second  son,  Josiali.  Little  Tom,  who,  at  six 
years  of  age,  had  seen  his  father  shot  down  by 
the  Indians,  is  known  all  over  the  world  because 
he  became  the  father  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the 
sixteenth  President  of  the  United  States. 

When  onlv  ten  vears  old,  Thomas  Lincoln 
was  ''a  wandering  laboring  boy,"  who  worked 
as  a  farm  helper  or  ''hand,"  and  learned  the 
trade  of  ''carpenter  and  joiner."  He  grew  to 
be  good-natured,  rather  tall,  with  a  powerful 
frame,  and  acquired  a  reputation  as  a  wrestler. 

Mordecai  Lincoln  was  a  pioneer  joker  and 
humorist.  One  of  his  acquaintances  described 
him  thus : 

"He  was  a  man  of  great  drollery  and  it  would 
almost  make  you  laugh  to  look  at  him.  I  never 
saw  but  one  other  man  whose  quiet,  droll  look 
excited  in  me  the  disposition  to  laugh,  and  that 
was  'Artemus  Ward.' 

18 


Abraham  Lincoln 

"Mordecai  was  quite  a  story-teller,  and  in 
this  Abe  resembled  his  'Uncle  Mord/  as  we 
called  him.  He  was  an  honest  man,  as  tender- 
hearted as  a  woman,  and  to  the  last  degree  char- 
itable and  benevolent. 

"Abe  Lincoln  had  a  very  high  opinion  of  his 
micle,  and  on  one  occasion  remarked,  'I  have 
often  said  that  Uncle  Mord  had  run  off  with  all 
the  talents  of  the  family.' '' 

In  a  letter  about  his  family  history,  just  be- 
fore he  was  nominated  for  the  presidency,  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  wrote : 

**My  parents  were  both  born  in  Virginia,  of 
undistinguished  families — second  families,  per- 
haps I  should  say.  My  mother  was  of  a  family 
of  the  name  of  Hanks.  My  paternal  grand- 
father, Abraham  Lincoln,  emigrated  from  Rock- 
ingham County,  Virginia,  to  Kentucky  about 
1781  or  2,  where,  a  year  or  two  later,  he  was 
killed  by  Indians — not  in  battle,  but  by  stealth, 
when  he  was  laboring  to  open  a  farm  in  the 
forest.  His  ancestors,  who  were  Quakers,  went 
to  Virginia  from  Berks  County,  Pennsylvania. 
An  effort  to  identify  them  with  the  New  Eng- 
land family  of  the  same  name  ended  in  nothing 
more  definite  than  a  similarity  of  Christian 

19 

z — Lincoln, 


The  Story  of  Young 

names  in  both  families,  such  as  Enoch,  Levi, 
Mordecai,  Solomon,  Abraham,  and  the  like. 

^'My  father,  at  the  death  of  his  father,  was  but 
six  years  of  age ;  and  he  grew  up,  literally  with- 
out education.'* 


CHAPTER  II 


Abraham  Lincoln's  Father  and  Mother 


While  Thomas  Lincoln  was  living  with  a 
farmer  and  doing  odd  jobs  of  carpentering,  he 
met  Nancy  Hanks,  a  tall,  slender  woman,  with 
dark  skin,  dark  brown  hair  and  small,  deep-set 
gray  eyes.  She  had  a  full  forehead,  a  sharp, 
angular  face  and  a  sad  expression.  Yet  her  dis- 
position was  generally  cheerful.  For  her  back- 
woods advantages  she  was  considered  well  edu- 
cated. She  read  well  and  could  write,  too.  It  is 
stated  that  Nancy  Hanks  taught  Thomas  Lin- 
coln to  write  his  own  name.  Thomas  was  twenty- 
five  and  Nancy  twenty-three  when  their  wed- 
ding day  came.  Christopher  Columbus  Graham, 
when  almost  one  hundred  years  old,  gave  the 

20 


Abraham  Lincoln 

following  description  of  the  marriage  feast  of 
the  Lincoln  bride  and  groom: 

*^I  am  one  of  the  two  living  men  who  can 
prove  that  Abraham  Lincoln,  or  Linkliorn,  as 
the  family  was  miscalled,  was  born  in  lawful 
wedlock,  for  I  saw  Thomas  Lincoln  marry 
Nancy  Hanks  on  the  12th  day  of  June,  1806.  I 
was  hunting  roots  for  my  medicine  and  just  went 
to  the  wedding  to  get  a  good  supper  and  got  it. 

*'Tom  Lincoln  was  a  carpenter,  and  a  good 
one  for  those  days,  when  a  cabin  was  built 
mainly  with  the  ax,  and  not  a  nail  or  a  bolt  or 
hinge  in  it,  only  leathers  and  pins  to  the  doors, 
and  no  glass,  except  in  watches  and  spectacles 
and  bottles.  Tom  had  the  best  set  of  tools  in 
what  was  then  and  is  now  Washington  County. 

** Jesse  Head,  the  good  Methodist  minister 
that  married  them,  was  also  a  carpenter  or  cabi- 
net maker  by  trade,  and  as  he  was  then  a  neigh- 
bor, they  were  good  friends. 

*' While  you  pin  me  down  to  facts,  I  will  say 
that  I  saw  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  at  her  wedding, 
a  fresh-looking  girl,  I  should  say  over  twenty. 
Tom  was  a  respectable  mechanic  and  could 
choose,  and  she  was  treated  with  respect. 

^*I  was  at  the  infare,  too,  given  by  John  H. 

21 


The  Story;  of  Young 

PaiTott,  her  guardian,  and  only  girls  with 
money  had  guardians  appointed  by  the  court. 
We  had  bear  meat;  venison;  wild  turkey  and 
ducks'  eggs,  wild  and  tame — so  common  that 
you  could  buy  them  at  two  bits  a  bushel ;  maple 
sugar,  swung  on  a  string,  to  bite  off  for  coffee; 
syrup  in  big  gourds,  peach  and  honey;  a  sheep 
that  the  two  families  barbecued  whole  over  coals 
of  wood  burned  in  a  pit,  and  covered  mth  green 
boughs  to  keep  the  juices  in.  Our  table  was  of 
the  puncheons  cut  from  solid  logs,  and  the  next 
day  they  were  the  floor  of  the  new  cabin.'' 

Thomas  Lincoln  took  his  bride  to  live  in  a 
little  log  cabin  in  a  Kentucky  settlement — not  a 
village  or  hardly  a  hamlet — called  Elizabeth- 
town,  lie  evidently  thought  this  place  would  be 
less  lonesome  for  his  wife,  while  he  was  away 
hunting  and  carpentering,  than  the  lonely  farm 
he  had  purchased  in  Hardin  County,  about  four- 
teen miles  away.  There  was  so  little  carpenter- 
ing or  cabinet  making  to  do  that  he  could  make 
a  better  living  by  farming  or  hunting.  Thomas 
was  very  fond  of  shooting  and  as  he  was  a  fine 
marksman  he  could  provide  game  for  the  table, 
and  other  things  which  are  considered  luxuries 
to-day,  such  as  furs  and  skins  needed  for  the 

22 


Abraham  Lincoln 

primitive  wearing  apparel  of  the  pioneers.  A 
daughter  was  born  to  the  young  couple  at  Eliza- 
bethtown,  whom  they  named  Sarah. 

Dennis  Hanks,  a  cousin  of  Nancy,  lived  near 
the  Lincolns  in  the  early  days  of  their  married 
life,  and  gave  Mrs.  Eleanor  Atkinson  this  de- 
scription of  their  early  life  together : 

^* Looks  didn't  count  them  days,  nohow.  It 
was  stren'th  an'  work  an'  daredevil.  A  lazy 
man  or  a  coward  was  jist  pizen,  an'  a  spindlin' 
feller  had  to  stay  in  the  settlemints.  The 
clearin's  hadn't  no  use  fur  him.  Tom  was 
strong,  an'  he  wasn't  lazy  nor  afeer'd  o'  no  thin', 
but  he  was  kind  o'  shif 'less — couldn't  git  nothin' 
ahead,  an'  didn't  keer  putickalar.  Lots  o'  them 
kind  o'  fellers  in  'arly  days,  'druther  hunt  and 
fish,  an'  I  reckon  they  had  their  use.  They 
killed  off  the  varmints  an'  made  it  safe  fur  other 
fellers  to  go  into  the  woods  with  an  ax. 

^'When  Nancy  married  Tom  he  was  workin' 
in  a  carpenter  shop.  It  wasn't  Tom's  fault  he 
couldn't  make  a  livin'  by  his  trade.  Thar  was 
sca'cely  any  money  in  that  kentry.  Every  man 
had  to  do  his  own  tinkerin',  an'  keep  everlast- 
in'ly  at  work  to  git  enough  to  eat.  So  Tom  tuk 
up  some  land.    It  was  mighty  ornery  land,  but  it 

23 


The  Story  of  Young 

was  the  best  Tom  could  git,  when  he  hadn't 
much  to  trade  fur  it. 

''Pore?  We  was  all  pore,  them  days,  but  the 
Lincolns  was  porer  than  anybody.  Choppin' 
trees  an'  grubbin'  roots  an'  splittin'  rails  an' 
huntin'  an'  trappin'  didn't  leave  Tom  no  time. 
It  was  all  he  could  do  to  git  his  f ambly  enough 
to  eat  and  to  kiver  'em.  Nancy  was  turrible 
ashamed  o'  the  way  they  lived,  but  she  knowed 
Tom  was  doin'  his  best,  an'  she  wa'n't  the  pes- 
terin'  kind.  She  was  purty  as  a  pictur'  an'  smart 
as  you'd  find  'em  anyv\^here.  She  could  read  an' 
write.  The  Hankses  was  some  smarter 'n  the 
Lincolns.  Tom  thought  a  heap  o'  Nancy,  an'  he 
was  as  good  to  her  as  he  knowed  how.  He  didn't 
drink  or  swear  or  play  cyards  or  fight,  an'  them 
was  drinkin',  cussin',  quarrelsome  days.  Tom 
was  popylar,  an'  he  could  lick  a  bully  if  he  had 
to.    He  jist  couldn't  git  ahead,  somehow." 

*' nancy's  boy  baby" 

Evidently  Elizabethtown  failed  to  furnish 
Thomas  Lincoln  a  living  wage  from  carpenter- 
ing, for  he  moved  with  his  young  wife  and  his 
baby  girl  to  a  farm  on  Nolen  Creek,  fourteen 
miles  away.    The  chief  attraction  of  the  so-called 

24 


Abraham  Lincoln 

farm  was  a  fine  spring  of  water  bubbling  up  in 
the  shade  of  a  small  grove.  From  this  spring 
the  place  came  to  be  known  as  '^Rock  Spring 
Farm."  It  was  a  barren  spot  and  the  cabin  on 
it  was  a  rude  and  primitive  sort  of  home  for  a 
carpenter  and  joiner  to  occupy.  It  contained 
but  a  single  room,  with  only  one  window  and 
one  door.  There  was  a  wide  fireplace  in  the  big 
chimney  which  was  built  outside.  But  that  rude 
hut  became  the  home  of  ^Hhe  greatest  Ameri- 
can." 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  to  poverty  and 
privation,  but  he  was  never  a  pauper.  His  hard- 
ships were  those  of  many  other  pioneers,  the 
wealthiest  of  whom  suffered  greater  privations 
than  the  poorest  laboring  man  has  to  endure  to- 
day. 

After  his  nomination  to  the  presidency,  Mr. 
Lincoln  gave  to  Mr.  Hicks,  a  portrait  painter, 
this  memorandum  of  his  birth: 

''I  was  born  February  12,  1809,  in 
then  Hardin  County,  Kentucky,  at  a 
point  within  the  now  county  of  Larue,  a 
mile  or  a  mile  and  a  half  from  where 
Hodgen's  mill  now  is.  My  parents  being 
dead,  and  my  memory  not  serving,  I 

THIS  BC^K  BELONGS  TO 

BROWLAWNS,  POLK  CO.  PUBLIC  HOSPITAL 

Seventeenth  and  St.  Joseph  Ave. 
DES  MOirMtS,  IOWA 


The  Story;  of  Young 

know  no  means  of  identifying  the  pre- 
cise locality.    It  was  on  Nolen  Creek. 

^^A.  Lincoln. 
^^JuneM,  I860.'' 

The  exact  spot  was  identified  after  his  death, 
and  the  house  was  found  standing  many  years 
later.  The  logs  were  removed  to  Chicago,  for 
the  World's  Columbian  Exposition,  in  1893,  and 
the  cabin  was  reconstructed  and  exhibited  there 
and  elsewhere  in  the  United  States.  The  ma- 
terials were  taken  back  to  their  original  site, 
and  a  fine  marble  structure  now  encloses  the 
precious  relics  of  the  birthplace  of  ^Hhe  first 
American,"  as  Lowell  calls  Lincoln  in  his  great 
^ '  Commemoration  Ode. " 

Cousin  Dennis  Hanks  gives  the  following 
quaint  description  of  ''Nancy's  boy  baby,"  as 
reported  by  Mrs.  Eleanor  Atkinson  in  her  little 
book  on ''Lincoln's  Boj^hood." 

"Tom  an'  Nancy  lived  on  a  farm  about  two 
miles  from  us,  when  Abe  was  born.  I  ricollect 
Tom  comin'  over  to  our  house  one  cold  mornin' 
in  Feb'uary  an'  sayin'  kind  o'  slow,  'Nancy's 
got  a  boy  baby.' 

"Mother  got  flustered  an'  hurried  up  'er  work 

26 


Abraham  Lincoln 

to  go  over  to  look  after  the  little  feller,  but  I 
didn't  have  nothin'  to  wait  fur,  so  I  cut  an'  run 
the  hull  two  mile  to  see  my  new  cousin. 

''You  bet  I  was  tickled  to  death.  Babies 
wasn't  as  common  as  blackberries  in  the  woods 
o'  Kaintucky.  Mother  come  over  an'  washed  him 
an'  put  a  yaller  flannel  petticoat  on  him,  an' 
cooked  some  dried  berries  with  wild  honev  fur 
Nancy,  an'  slicked  things  up  an'  went  home. 
An'  that's  all  the  nuss'n  either  of  'em  got. 

*'I  rolled  up  in  a  b'ar  skin  an'  slep'  by  the  fire- 
place that  night,  so's  I  could  see  the  little  feller 
when  he  cried  an'  Tom  had  to  get  up  an'  tend 
to  him.  Nancy  let  me  hold  him  purty  soon. 
Folks  often  ask  me  if  Abe  was  a  good  lookin' 
baby.  Well,  now,  he  looked  just  like  any  other 
baby,  at  fust — like  red  cherry  pulp  squeezed  dry. 
An'  he  didn't  improve  none  as  he  growed  older. 
Abe  never  was  much  fur  looks.  I  ricollect  how 
Tom  joked  about  Abe's  long  legs  when  he  was 
toddlin'  round  the  cabin.  He  growed  out  o'  his 
clothes  faster 'n  Nancy  could  make  'em. 

*'But  he  was  mighty  good  comp'ny,  solemn  as 
a  papoose,  but  interested  in  everything.  An'  he 
always  did  have  fits  o'  cuttin'  up.  I've  seen  him 
when  he  was  a  little  feller,  settin'  on  a  stool, 

27 


The  Story  of  Young 

starin'  at  a  visitor.  All  of  a  sudden  he'd  bu'st 
out  laughin'  fit  to  kill.  If  he  told  us  what  he 
was  laughin'  at,  half  the  time  we  couldn't  see  no 
joke. 

^'Abe  never  give  Nancy  no  trouble  after  he 
could  walk  excep'  to  keep  him  in  clothes.  Most 
o'  the  time  he  went  bar 'foot.  Ever  wear  a  wet 
buckskin  glove?  Them  moccasins  wasn't  no 
putection  ag'inst  the  wet.  Birch  bark  with  hick- 
ory bark  soles,  strapped  on  over  yarn  socks, 
beat  buckskin  all  holler,  fur  snow.  Abe'n  me 
got  purty  handy  contrivin'  things  that  way.  An' 
Abe  was  right  out  in  the  woods  about  as  soon's 
he  was  weaned,  fishin'  in  the  creek,  settin'  traps 
fur  rabbits  an'  muskrats,  goin'  on  coon-hunts 
with  Tom  an'  me  an'  the  dogs,  follerin'  up  bees 
to  find  bee-trees,  an'  drappin'  corn  fur  his 
pappy.  Mighty  interestin'  life  fur  a  boy,  but 
thar  was  a  good  many  chances  he  wouldn't  live 
to  grow  up." 

When  little  Abe  was  four  years  old  his  father 
and  mother  moved  from  Rock  Spring  Farm  to 
a  better  place  on  Knob  Creek,  fifteen  miles  to 
the  northeast  of  the  farm  where  he  was  born. 


28 


Abraham  Lincoln 


CHAPTER  III 


The  Boy  Lincoln's  Best  Teacher 


At  Knob  Creek  the  boy  began  to  go  to  an 
"A  B  C"  school.  His  first  teacher  was  Zacha- 
riah  Riney.  Of  course,  there  were  no  regular 
schools  in  the  backwoods  then.  When  a  man 
who  ''knew  enough"  happened  to  come  along, 
especially  if  he  had  nothing  else  to  do,  he  tried 
to  teach  the  children  of  the  pioneers  in  a  poor 
log  schoolhouse.  It  is  not  likely  that  little  Abe 
went  to  school  more  than  a  few  weeks  at  this 
time,  for  he  never  had  a  year's  schooling  in  his 
life.  There  was  another  teacher  afterward  at 
Knob  Creek — a  man  named  Caleb  Hazel.  Little 
is  known  of  either  of  these  teachers  except  that 
he  taught  little  Abe  Lincoln.  If  their  pupil  had 
not  become  famous  the  men  and  their  schools 
would  never  have  been  mentioned  in  history. 

An  old  man,  named  Austin  Gollaher,  used  to 
like  to  tell  of  the  days  when  he  and  little  Abe 
went  to  school  together.    He  said: 

**Abe  was  an  unusually  bright  boy  at  school, 

29 


The  Stoiy  of  Young 

and  made  splendid  progress  in  his  studies.  In- 
deed, he  learned  faster  than  any  of  his  school- 
mates. Though  so  young,  he  studied  very  hard. 
He  would  get  spicewood  bushes,  hack  them  up 
on  a  log,  and  burn  them,  two  or  three  together, 
for  the  purpose  of  giving  light  by  which  he 
might  pursue  his  studies." 

It  is  likely  that  Abe  ''pursued  his  studies" 
under  the  guidance  of  his  mother,  who  had 
taught  his  father  to  write  his  own  name.  Mrs. 
Nancy  Lincoln  must  have  taken  great  pains  to 
instruct  her  little  girl  and  boy,  especially  as  Abe 
began  so  early  to  show  a  real  thirst  for  knowl- 
edge. She  told  the  children  Bible  stories,  and 
such  other  tales  as  she  had  been  able  to  learn  in 
her  limited  backwoods  life,  by  the  light  of  the 
open  fire  of  spicewood  boughs.  After  the  boy 
became  a  great  and  famous  man,  he  remembered 
with  deep  tenderness  those  quiet  evenings  when 
his  mother  told  stories  by  the  firelight.  The  fact 
that  he  had  cut  the  spicewood  boughs  to  add  to' 
his  mother's  pleasure  must  have  added  a  pleas- 
ant fragrance  to  his  own  memories  of  her  and 
their  happy  days  together  on  Knob  Creek  Farm. 

Austin  GoUaher  was  still  living  in  his  old  log 
cabin  near  the  Lincoln  house  nearly  twenty  years 

30 


Abraham  Lincoln 

after  Lincoln's  assassination,  and  gave  the  fol- 
lowing account  of  an  adventure  he  had  with  the 
little  Lincoln  boy : 

*'I  once  saved  Lincoln's  life.  We  had  been 
going  to  school  together  one  year;  but  the  next 
year  we  had  no  school,  because  there  were  so  few 
scholars  to  attend,  there  being  only  about  twenty 
in  the  school  the  year  before. 

*^  Consequently  Abe  and  I  had  not  much  to  do ; 
but,  as  we  did  not  go  to  school  and  our  mothers 
were  strict  with  us,  we  did  not  get  to  see  each 
other  very  often.  One  Sunday  morning  my 
mother  waked  me  up  early,  saying  she  was  going 
to  see  Mrs.  Lincoln,  and  that  I  could  go  along. 
Glad  of  the  chance,  I  was  soon  dressed  and  ready 
to  go.  After  my  mother  and  I  got  there,  Abe  and 
I  played  all  through  the  day. 

"While  we  were  wandering  up  and  down  the 
little  stream  called  Knob  Creek,  Abe  said :  'Right 
up  there' — pointing  to  the  east — 'we  saw  a  covey 
of  partridges  yesterday.  Let's  go  over.'  The 
stream  w^as  too  wide  for  us  to  jump  across. 
Finally  we  saw  a  foot-log,  and  decided  to  try  it. 
It  was  narrow,  but  Abe  said,  'Let's  coon  it.' 

"I  went  first  and  reached  the  other  side  all 
right.    Abe  went  about  half  way  across,  when 

31 


The  Story  of  Young 

he  got  seared  and  began  trembling.  I  hollered 
to  him,  'Don't  look  down  nor  up  nor  sideways, 
but  look  right  at  me  and  hold  on  tight !'  But  he 
fell  o:ff  into  the  creek,  and,  as  the  water  was  about 
seven  or  eight  feet  deep  (I  could  not  swim,  and 
neither  could  Abe),  I  knew  it  would  do  no  good 
for  me  to  go  in  after  him.    ' 

''So  I  got  a  stick — a  long  water  sprout — and 
held  it  out  to  him.  He  came  up,  grabbing  mth 
both  hands,  and  I  put  the  stick  into  his  hands. 
He  clung  to  it,  and  I  pulled  him  out  on  the  bank, 
almost  dead.  I  got  him  by  the  arms  and  shook 
him  well,  and  then  I  rolled  him  on  the  gromid, 
when  the  water  poured  out  of  his  mouth. 

"He  was  all  right  very  soon.  We  promised 
each  other  that  we  would  never  tell  anybody 
about  it,  and  never  did  for  years.  I  never  told 
any  one  of  it  till  after  Lmcoln  was  killed. ' ' 

Abraham  Lincoln's  parents  were  religious  in 
their  simple  way.  The  boy  was  brought  up  to 
believe  in  the  care  of  the  Father  in  Heaven  over 
the  affairs  of  this  life.  The  family  attended 
camp  meetings  and  preaching  services,  which 
were  great  events,  because  few  and  far  between, 
in  those  primitive  days.  Abe  used  afterward  to 
get  his  playmates  together  and  preach  to  them 

32 


Abraham  Lincoln 

in  a  way  that  sometimes  frightened  them  and 
made  them  cry. 

No  doubt  young  Lincoln  learned  more  that  was 
useful  to  him  in  after  life  from  the  wandering 
preachers  of  his  day  than  he  did  of  his  teachers 
during  the  few  months  that  he  was  permitted  to 
go  to  school.  But  his  best  teacher  was  his 
mother.  She  would  have  been  proud  to  have  her 
boy  grow  up  to  be  a  traveling  minister  or  ex- 
horter,  like  Peter  Cartwright,  'Hhe  backwoods 
preacher.'^ 

Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  '^builded  better  than 
she  knew."  She  would  have  been  satisfied  with 
a  cabin  life  for  her  son.  She  little  knew  that  by 
her  own  life  and  teaching  she  was  raising  up  the 
greatest  man  of  his  age,  and  one  of  the  grandest 
men  in  all  history,  to  become  the  ruler  of  the 
greatest  nation  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  She 
did  her  duty  by  her  little  boy  and  he  honored  her 
always  during  her  life  and  afterward.  No  won- 
der he  once  exclaimed  when  he  thought  of  her : 

''All  I  am  or  hope  to  be  I  owe  to  my  sainted 
mother." 

And  out  of  her  poor,  humble  life,  that  devoted 
woman 

*'Gave  us  Lincoln  and  never  knew!" 

33 


The  Story  of  Young 


CHAPTER  IV 


Learning  to  Work 


The  little  Lincoln  boy  learned  to  help  his 
father  and  mother  as  soon  as  he  could,  picking 
berries,  dropping  seeds  and  carrying  water  for 
the  men  to  drink.  The  farm  at  Knob  Creek 
seems  to  have  been  a  little  more  fertile  than  the 
other  two  places  on  which  his  father  had  chosen 
to  live. 

Once  while  living  in  the  White  House,  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  was  asked  if  he  could  remember  his 
' '  old  Kentucky  home. ' '  He  replied  with  consid- 
erable feeling: 

^'I  remember  that  old  home  very  well.  Our 
farm  was  composed  of  three  fields.  It  lay  in  the 
valley,  surrounded  by  high  hills  and  deep  gorges. 
Sometimes,  when  there  came  a  big  rain  in  the 
hills,  the  water  would  come  down  through  the 
gorges  and  spread  all  over  the  farm.  The  last 
thing  I  remember  of  doing  there  was  one  Satur- 
day afternoon;  the  other  boys  planted  the  corn 
in  what  we  called  the  big  field — ^it  contained 

34 


Abraham  Lincoln 

seven  acres — and  I  dropped  the  pumpkin  seed. 
I  dropped  two  seeds  in  every  other  row  and  every 
other  hill.  The  next  Sunday  morning  there 
came  a  big  rain  in  the  hills — it  did  not  rain  a 
drop  in  the  valley,  but  the  water,  coming  through 
the  gorges,  washed  the  ground,  corn,  pumpkin 
seeds  and  all,  clear  off  the  field!'' 

Although  this  was  the  last  thing  Lincoln  could 
remember  doing  on  that  farm,  it  is  not  at  all 
likely  that  it  was  the  last  thing  he  did  there,  for 
Thomas  Lincoln  was  not  the  man  to  plant  corn 
in  a  field  he  was  about  to  leave.  (The  Lincolns 
moved  away  in  the  fall.) 

Another  baby  boy  was  born  at  Knob  Creek 
farm;  a  puny,  pathetic  little  stranger.  When 
this  baby  was  about  three  years  old,  the  father 
had  to  use  his  skill  as  a  cabinet  maker  in  making 
a  tiny  coffin,  and  the  Lincoln  family  wept  over  a 
lonely  little  grave  in  the  wilderness. 

About  this  time  Abe  began  to  learn  lessons  in 
practical  patriotism.  Once  when  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  asked  what  he  could  remember  of  the  War 
of  1812,  he  replied : 

**  Nothing  but  this :  T  had  been  fishing  one  day 
and  caught  a  little  fish  which  I  was  taking  home. 
I  met  a  soldier  on  the  road,  and,  having  been  told 

35 

3 — Lincoln. 


The  Story  of  Young 

at  home  that  we  must  be  good  to  the  soldiers,  I 
gave  him  my  fish/' 

An  old  man,  Major  Alexander  Sympson,  who 
lived  not  far  from  the  Lincolns  at  this  period, 
left  this  description  of  ''a  mere  spindle  of  a 
boy,''  in  one  of  his  earliest  attempts  to  defend 
himself  against  odds,  while  waiting  at  the  neigh- 
boring mill  while  a  grist  was  being  ground. 

**He  was  the  shyest,  most  reticent,  most  un- 
couth and  awkward-appearing,  homeliest  and 
worst-dressed  of  any  in  the  crowd.  So  superla- 
tively wretched  a  butt  could  not  hope  to  look  on 
long  unmolested.  He  was  attacked  one  day  as  he 
stood  near  a  tree  by  a  larger  boy  with  others  at 
his  back.  But  the  crowd  was  greatly  astonished 
when  little  Lincoln  soundly  thrashed  the  first, 
the  second,  and  third  boy  in  succession ;  and  then, 
placing  his  back  against  the  tree,  he  defied  the 
whole  crowd,  and  told  them  they  were  a  lot  of 
cowards." 

Evidently  Father  Tom,  who  enjoyed  quite  a 
reputation  as  a  wrestler,  had  give  the  small  boy 
a  few  lessons  in  ''the  manly  art  of  self-defense." 

Meanwhile  the  little  brother  and  sister  were 
learning  still  better  things  at  their  mother's 
knee,  alternately  hearing  and  reading  stories 

36 


Abraham  Lincoln 

from  the  Bible,  ''The  Pilgrim's  Progress/' 
''^sop's  Fables,"  ''Robinson  Crusoe,"  and 
other  books,  common  now,  but  rare  enough  in  the 
backwoods  in  those  days. 

There  were  hard  times,  even  in  the  wilderness 
of  Kentucky,  after  the  War  of  1812.  Slavery 
was  spreading,  and  Thomas  and  Nancy  Lincoln 
heartily  hated  that  "relic  of  barbarism."  To 
avoid  witnessing  its  wrongs  which  made  it 
harder  for  self-respecting  white  men  to  rise 
above  the  class  referred  to  with  contempt  in  the 
South  as  "poor  white  trash,"  Tom  Lincoln  de- 
termined to  move  farther  north  and  west — and 
deeper  into  the  wilds. 

It  is  sometimes  stated  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
belonged  to  the  indolent  class  known  as  "poor 
whites,"  but  this  is  not  true.  Shiftless  and  im- 
provident though  liis  father  was,  he  had  no  use 
for  that  class  of  white  slaves,  who  seemed  to  fall 
even  lower  than  the  blacks. 

There  was  trouble,  too,  about  the  title  to  much 
of  the  land  in  Kentucky,  while  Indiana  offered 
special  inducements  to  settlers  in  that  new  terri- 
tory. 

In  his  carpenter  work,  Thomas  Lincoln  had 
learned  how  to  build  a  flatboat,  and  had  made  at 

37 


The  Story  of  Young 

least  one  trip  to  New  Orleans  on  a  craft  which 
he  himself  had  put  together.  So,  when  he  finally 
decided  in  the  fall  of  1816  to  emigrate  to  Indiana, 
he  at  once  began  to  build  another  boat,  which  he 
launched  on  the  Rolling  Fork,  at  the  mouth  of 
Knob  Creek,  about  half  a  mile  from  his  own 
cabin.  He  traded  his  farm  for  what  movable 
property  he  could  get,  and  loaded  his  raft  with 
that  and  his  carpenter  tools.  Waving  good-bye 
to  his  wife  and  two  children,  he  floated  down  the 
Rolling  Fork,  Salt  River,  and  out  into  the  Ohio 
River,  which  proved  too  rough  for  his  shaky 
craft,  and  it  soon  went  to  pieces. 

After  fishing  up  the  carpenter  tools  and  most 
of  his  other  e:ffects,  he  put  together  a  crazy  raft 
which  held  till  he  landed  at  Thompson's  Ferry, 
Perry  County,  in  Southern  Indiana.  Here  he 
unloaded  his  raft,  left  his  valuables  in  the  care  of 
a  settler  named  Posey  and  journeyed  on  foot 
through  the  woods  to  find  a  good  location.  After 
trudging  about  sixteen  miles,  blazing  a  trail,  he 
found  a  situation  which  suited  him  well  enough, 
he  thought.  Then  he  walked  all  the  way  back  to 
the  Kentucky  home  they  were  about  to  leave. 

He  found  his  wife,  with  Sarah,  aged  nine,  and 
Abraham,  aged  seven,  ready  to  migrate  with  him 

38 


Abraham  Lincoln 

to  a  newer  wilderness.  The  last  thing  Nancy 
Lincoln  had  done  before  leaving  their  old  home 
was  to  take  the  brother  and  sister  for  a  farewell 
visit  to  the  grave  of  ''the  little  boy  that  died/' 

OVER  IN"  INDIANA 

The  place  the  father  had  selected  for  their 
home  was  a  beautiful  spot.  They  could  build 
their  cabin  on  a  little  hill,  sloping  gently  down 
on  all  sides.  The  soil  was  excellent,  but  there 
was  one  serious  drawback — there  was  no  water 
fit  to  drink  within  a  mile !  Thomas  Lincoln  had 
neglected  to  observe  this  most  important  point 
while  he  was  prospecting.  His  wife,  or  even  little 
Abe,  would  have  had  more  common  sense.  That 
was  one  reason  why  Thomas  Lincoln,  though  a 
good  man,  Vv^ho  tried  hard  enough  at  times,  was 
always  poor  and  looked  down  upon  by  his  thrifty 
neighbors. 

Instead  of  taking  his  wife  and  children  down 
the  three  streams  by  boat,  as  he  had  gone,  the 
father  borrowed  two  horses  of  a  neighbor  and 
** packed  through  to  Posey's,"  where  he  had  left 
his  carpenter  tools  and  the  other  property  he 
had  saved  from  the  wi'eck  of  his  raft.  Abe  and 
Sarah  must  have  enjoyed  the  journey,  especially 

39 


The  Stoiy  of  Young 

camping  out  every  night  on  the  way.  The 
father's  skill  as  a  marksman  furnished  them 
with  tempting  suppers  and  breakfasts  of  wild 
game. 

On  the  horses  they  packed  their  bedding  and 
the  cooking  utensils  they  needed  while  on  the 
journey,  and  for  use  after  their  arrival  at  the 
new  home.  This  stock  was  not  large,  for  it  con- 
sisted only  of  ''one  oven  and  lid,  one  skillet  and 
lid,  and  some  tinware." 

After  they  came  to  Posey's,  Thomas  Lincoln 
hired  a  wagon  and  loaded  it  with  the  effects  he 
had  left  there,  as  well  as  the  bedding  and  the 
cooking  things  they  had  brought  with  them  on 
the  two  horses.  It  was  a  rough  wagon  ride,  jolt- 
ing over  stumps,  logs,  and  roots  of  trees.  An 
earlier  settler  had  cut  out  a  path  for  a  few  miles, 
but  the  rest  of  the  way  required  many  days,  for 
the  father  had  to  cut  down  trees  to  make  a  rough 
road  wide  enough  for  the  wagon  to  pass.  It  is 
not  likely  that  Abe  and  Sarah  minded  the  delays, 
for  children  generally  enjoy  new  experiences  of 
that  sort.  As  for  their  mother,  she  was  accus- 
tomed to  all  such  hardships ;  she  had  learned  to 
take  life  as  it  came  and  make  the  best  of  it. 

Nancy  Lincoln  needed  all  her  Christian  f  orti- 

40 


Abraham  Lincoln 

tude  in  that  Indiana  home — if  such  a  place  could 
be  called  a  home.  At  last  they  reached  the 
chosen  place,  in  the  ^^fork"  made  by  Little 
Pigeon  Creek  emptying  into  Big  Pigeon  Creek, 
about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  a  settlement  which 
was  afterward  called  Gentryville. 

As  it  was  late  in  the  fall,  Thomas  Lincoln  de- 
cided not  to  wait  to  cut  down  big  trees  and  hew 
logs  for  a  cabin,  so  he  built  a  ''half -faced  camp," 
or  shed  enclosed  on  three  sides,  for  his  family  to 
live  in  that  winter.  As  this  shed  was  made  of 
saplings  and  poles,  he  put  an  ax  in  Abe's  hands, 
and  the  seven-year-old  boy  helped  his  father 
build  their  first  ''home"  in  Lidiana.  It  was 
Abe's  first  experience  in  the  work  that  afterward 
made  him  famous  as  "the  rail  splitter."  It  was 
with  the  ax,  as  it  were,  that  he  hewed  his  way  to 
the  White  House  and  became  President  of  the 
United  States. 

Of  course,  little  Abe  Lincoln  had  no  idea  of  the 
White  House  then.  He  may  never  have  heard  of 
"the  President's  Palace,"  as  it  used  to  be  called 
— for  the  White  House  was  then  a  gruesome, 
blackened  ruin,  burned  by  the  British  in  the  War 
of  1812.  President  Madison  was  living  in  a 
rented  house  nearby,  while  the  Executive  Man- 

41 


The  Stoiy  of  Young 

sion  was  being  restored.  The  blackened  stone 
walls,  left  standing  after  the  fire,  were  painted 
tvhite,  and  on  that  account  the  President's  man- 
sion came  to  be  known  as  "the  White  House." 

Little  Abe,  without  a  thought  of  his  great  fu- 
ture, was  getting  ready  for  it  by  hacking  away 
at  poles  and  little  trees  and  helping  his  father  in 
the  very  best  way  he  knew.  It  was  not  long,  then, 
before  the  "half -faced  camp"  was  ready  for  his 
mother  and  sister  to  move  into. 

Then  there  was  the  water  question.  Dennis 
Hanks  afterward  said :  * '  Tom  Lincoln  riddled  his 
land  like  a  honeycomb"  trying  to  find  good 
water.  In  the  fall  and  winter  they  caught  rain- 
water or  melted  snow  and  strained  it,  but  that 
was  not  very  healthful  at  best.  So  Abe  and  Sarah 
had  to  go  a  mile  to  a  spring  and  carry  all  the 
water  they  needed  to  drink,  and,  when  there  had 
been  no  rain  for  a  long  time,  all  the  water  they 
used  for  cooking  and  washing  had  to  be  brought 
from  there,  too. 

When  warmer  weather  came,  after  their  "long 
and  dreary  winter"  of  shivering  in  that  poor 
shed,  the  "camp"  did  not  seem  so  bad.  Thomas 
Lincoln  soon  set  about  building  a  warmer  and 
more  substantial  cabin.     Abe  was  now  eight 

,       42 


Abraham  Lincoln 

years  old,  and  had  had  some  practice  in  the  use 
of  the  ax,  so  he  was  able  to  help  his  father  still 
more  by  cutting  and  hewing  larger  logs  for  the 
new  cabin.  They  got  it  ready  for  the  family  to 
move  into  before  cold  weather  set  in  again. 

They  had  to  make  their  own  furniture  also. 
The  table  and  chairs  were  made  of  *' puncheon,'^ 
or  slabs  of  wood,  with  holes  bored  under  each 
corner  to  stick  the  legs  in.  Their  bedsteads  were 
poles  fitted  into  holes  bored  in  logs  in  the  walls 
of  the  cabin,  and  the  protruding  ends  supported 
by  poles  or  stakes  driven  into  the  ground,  for 
Tom  Lincoln  had  not  yet  laid  the  puncheon  floor 
of  their  cabin.  Abe's  bed  was  a  pile  of  dry 
leaves  laid  in  one  corner  of  the  loft  to  which  he 
climbed  by  means  of  a  ladder  of  pegs  driven  into 
the  wall,  instead  of  stairs. 

Their  surroundings  were  such  as  to  delight 
the  heart  of  a  couple  of  care-free  children.  The 
forest  was  filled  with  oaks,  beeches,  walnuts  and 
sugar-maple  trees,  growing  close  together  and 
free  from  underbrush.  Now  and  then  there  was 
an  open  glade  called  a  prairie  or  "lick,'^  where 
the  wild  animals  came  to  drink  and  disport 
themselves.  Game  was  plentiful — deer,  bears, 
pheasants,  wild  turkeys,  ducks  and  birds  of  all 

43 


The  Story  of  Young 

kinds.  This,  with  Tom  Lincoln's  passion  for 
hunting,  promised  good  things  for  the  family  to 
eat,  as  well  as  bearskin  rugs  for  the  bare  earth 
floor,  and  deerskin  curtains  for  the  still  open 
door  and  window.  There  were  fish  in  the 
streams  and  wild  fruits  and  nuts  of  many  kinds 
to  be  found  in  the  w^oods  during  the  summer  and 
fall.  For  a  long  time  the  corn  for  the  ''corn- 
dodgers" which  they  baked  in  the  ashes,  had  to 
be  ground  by  pounding,  or  in  primitive  hand- 
mills.  Potatoes  were  about  the  only  vegetable 
raised  in  large  quantities,  and  pioneer  families 
often  made  the  whole  meal  of  roasted  potatoes. 
Once  when  his  father  had  ''asked  the  blessing" 
over  an  ashy  heap  of  this  staple,  Abe  remarked 
that  they  were  "mighty  poor  blessings!" 

But  there  were  few  complaints.  They  were 
all  accustomed  to  that  way  of  living,  and  they 
enjoyed  the  free  and  easy  life  of  the  forest. 
Their  only  reason  for  complaint  was  because 
they  had  been  compelled  to  live  in  an  open  shed 
all  winter,  and  because  there  was  no  floor  to 
cover  the  damp  ground  in  their  new  cabin — ^no 
oiled  paper  for  their  one  window,  and  no  door 
swinging  in  the  single  doorway — ^yet  the  father 
was  carpenter  and  cabinet  maker!    There  is  no 

44 


Abraham  Lincoln 

record  that  Nancy  Lincohi,  weak  and  ailing 
though  she  was,  demurred  even  at  such  needless 
privations. 

About  the  only  reference  to  this  period  of 
their  life  that  has  been  preserved  for  us  was  in 
an  odd  little  sketch  in  which  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote 
of  himself  as  ^'he." 

**A  few  days  before  the  completion  of  his 
eighth  year,  in  the  absence  of  his  father,  a  flock 
of  wild  turkeys  approached  the  new  log  cabin, 
and  Abraham,  with  a  rifle  gun,  standing  inside, 
shot  through  a  crack  and  killed  one  of  them.  He 
has  never  since  pulled  a  trigger  on  any  larger 
game." 

Though  shooting  was  the  principal  sport  of 
the  youth  and  their  fathers  in  Lincoln's  younger 
days,  Abe  was  too  kind  to  inflict  needless  suffer- 
ing upon  any  of  God's  creatures.  He  had  real 
religion  in  his  loving  heart.  Even  as  a  boy  he 
seemed  to  know  that 

^*He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best 
All  things  both  great  and  small ; 
For  the  dear  God  that  loveth  us, 
He  made  and  loveth  all." 


45 


The  Story  of  Young 


CHAPTER  V 


Losing  His  Mother 


IN"  the  fall  of  1817,  when  the  Lincoln  family 
had  moved  from  the  shed  into  the  rough  log 
cabin,  Thomas  and  Betsy  Sparrow  came  and  oc- 
cupied the  ''darned  little  half -faced  camp,"  as 
Dennis  Hanks  called  it.  Betsy  Sparrow  was 
the  aunt  who  had  brought  up  Nancy  Hanks,  and 
she  was  now  a  foster-mother  to  Dennis,  her 
nephew.  Deimis  became  the  constant  com- 
panion of  the  two  Lincoln  children.  He  has  told 
most  of  the  stories  that  are  known  of  this  sad 
time  in  the  Lincoln  boy's  life. 

The  two  families  had  lived  there  for  nearly  a 
year  when  Thomas  and  Betsy  Sparrow  were 
both  seized  with  a  terrible  disease  known  to  the 
settlers  as  the  ''milk-sick"  because  it  attacked 
the  cattle.  The  stricken  uncle  and  aunt  died, 
early  in  October,  within  a  few  days  of  each 
other.  While  his  wife  was  ill  with  the  same  dread 
disease,  Thomas  Lincoln  was  at  work,  cutting 
down  trees  and  ripping  boards  out  of  the  logs 

46 


AbraHam  Lincoln 

with  a  long  whipsaw  with  a  handle  at  each  end, 
which  little  Abe  had  to  help  him  use.  It  was  a 
sorrowful  task  for  the  young  lad,  for  Abe  must 
have  known  that  he  would  soon  be  helping  his 
father  make  his  mother 's  coffin.  They  buried  the 
Sparrows  under  the  trees  ''without  benefit  of 
clergy,"  for  ministers  came  seldom  to  that  re- 
mote region. 

Nancy  Lincoln  did  not  long  survive  the  de- 
voted aunt  and  uncle.  She  had  suffered  too 
much  from  exposure  and  privation  to  recover 
her  strength  when  she  was  seized  by  the  strange 
malady.  One  who  was  near  her  during  her  last 
illness  wrote,  long  afterward: 

*'She  struggled  on,  day  by  day,  like  the  pa- 
tient Christian  woman  she  was.  Abe  and  his 
sister  Sarah  waited  on  their  mother,  and  did  the 
little  jobs  and  errands  required  of  them.  There 
was  no  physician  nearer  than  thirty-five  miles. 

''The  mother  knew  that  she  was  going  to  die, 
and  called  the  children  to  her  bedside.  She  was 
very  weak  and  the  boy  and  girl  leaned  over  her 
while  she  gave  them  her  dying  message.  Plac- 
ing her  feeble  hand  on  little  Abe's  head,  she  told 
him  to  be  kind  and  good  to  his  father  and  sister. 

"  *Be  good  to  one  another,'  she  said  to  them 

47 


The  Story  of  Young 

both.  While  expressing  her  hope  that  they 
might  live,  as  she  had  taught  them  to  live,  in  the 
love  of  their  kindred  and  the  service  of  God, 
Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  passed  from  the  miser- 
able surroundings  of  her  poor  life  on  earth  to 
the  brightness  of  the  Beyond,  on  the  seventh  day 
after  she  was  taken  sick/' 

To  the  motherless  boy  the  thought  of  his 
blessed  mother  being  buried  without  any  re- 
ligious service  whatever  added  a  keen  pang  to 
the  bitterness  of  his  lot.  Dennis  Hanks  once 
told  how  eagerly  Abe  learned  to  write : 

'^  Sometimes  he  would  write  with  a  piece  of 
charcoal,  or  the  p'int  of  a  burnt  stick,  on  the 
fence  or  floor.  We  got  a  little  paper  at  the 
country  town,  and  I  made  ink  out  of  blackberry 
juice,  briar  root  and  a  little  copperas  in  it.  It 
was  black,  but  the  copperas  would  eat  the  paper 
after  a  while.  I  made  his  first  pen  out  of  a  tur- 
key-buzzard feather.  We  hadn't  no  geese  them 
days — to  make  good  pens  of  goose  quills." 

As  soon  as  he  was  able  Abe  Lincoln  wrote  his 
first  letter.  It  was  addressed  to  Parson  Elkin, 
the  Baptist  preacher,  who  had  sometimes  stayed 
over  night  with  the  family  when  they  lived  in 
Kentucky,  to  ask  that  elder  to  come  and  preach 

48 


Abraham  Lincoln 

a  funeral  sermon  over  his  mother's  grave.  It 
was  no  small  favor  to  ask,  but  the  good  minister 
wi'ote  back  to  the  boy  that  he  would  come  the 
very  next  time  his  circuit  work  brought  him 
near  the  Indiana  line. 

Early  in  the  following  summer,  when  the  trees 
of  the  forest  were  green,  and  some  of  them  in 
bloom,  the  dear  old  parson  came  on  his  errand 
of  kindness  in  answer  to  the  heart-broken  plea 
of  a  little  boy.  The  arrival  of  a  minister  of  the 
Gospel  was  a  glad  event  which  the  whole  neigh- 
borhood should  enjoy.  Word  was  sent  to  all  the 
region  roimd  about  Prairie  Fork,  as  their  little 
settlement  came  to  be  called,  and  the  people 
came  from  all  directions  the  following  Sunday 
morning.  There  were  two  hundred  of  them,  all 
told — a  large  congregation  for  a  sparsely  settled 
country.  Forest  rangers  came  on  foot,  the 
farmers  brought  their  whole  families  in  great 
ox-carts,  droves  of  men  and  women  arrived  on 
horseback,  and  joined  the  groups  already  there, 
sitting  and  l}dng  *^on  the  green  grass,''  as  at  the 
feeding  of  the  multitudes  in  the  time  of  the 
Christ.  Others  sat  on  fallen  trees,  logs  and 
wagon  tongues,  waiting  for  the  coming  of  the 
little  procession,  for,  though  Nancy  Lincoln  had 

49 


The  Story;  of  Young 

been  buried  the  year  before,  pioneer  etiquette 
required  all  the  formalities  of  a  funeral. 

It  was  the  event  of  the  season — that  sermon 
over  the  grave  of  the  mother  of  the  boy  who  had 
wiitten  his  first  letter  nearly  nine  months  before 
to  bring  about  this  service  which  now  yielded 
him  such  solemn  satisfaction.  Parson  Elkin 
himself  led  the  family  forth  from  their  cabin. 
He  was  followed  by  the  widowed  husband,  young 
Abraham  Lincoln  and  his  sister  Sarah — and 
poor  Dennis  Hanks,  bereaved  even  of  his  foster- 
parents,  and  now  a  member  of  the  Lincoln 
family. 

There  were  tender  hearts  behind  those  hard- 
ened faces,  and  tears  brightened  the  sun-tanned 
cheeks  of  many  in  that  motley  assemblage  of 
eager  listeners,  as  the  good  elder  paid  the  last 
tribute  of  earth  to  the  sweet  and  patient  mem- 
ory of  departed  womanliood. 

To  young  Abraham  Lincoln  it  was  a  memo- 
rable occasion.  He  took  a  solemn  pride  in  the 
pious  exhortation  of  the  preacher,  and  the  event 
filled  his  soul  with  sad  complacency.  It  was  all 
for  her  sake,  and  she  was  of  all  women  worthy 
of  this  sacred  respect  to  noble  motherhood. 
*'God  bless  my  angel  mother  I"  burst  from  his 

50 


Abraham  Lincoln 

lonely  lips — ''how  glad  I  am  I've  learned  to 
write!" 

THE  COMING  OF  AN"OTHER  MOTHER 

All  that  a  young  girl  of  twelve  could  do,  as- 
sisted by  a  willing  brother  of  ten,  was  done  by 
Sarah  and  Abraham  Lincoln  to  make  that  deso- 
late cabin  a  home  for  their  lonesome  father,  and 
for  cousin  Dennis  Hanks,  whose  young  life  had 
been  twice  darkened  by  a  double  bereavement. 
But  ''what  is  home  without  a  mother'?" 
Thomas  Lincoln,  missing  the  balance  and  in- 
spiration of  a  patient  wife,  became  more  and 
more  restless,  and,  after  a  year,  wandered  back 
again  to  his  former  homes  and  haunts  in  Ken- 
tucky. 

While  visiting  Elizabethtown  he  saw  a  former 
sweetheart,  the  Sally  Bush  of  younger  days, 
now  Mrs.  Daniel  Johnston,  widow  of  the  county 
jailer  who  had  recently  died,  leaving  three  chil- 
dren and  considerable  property,  for  that  time 
and  place.  Thomas  renewed  his  suit  and  won 
the  pitying  heart  of  Sarah  Johnston,  and  ac- 
cording to  the  story  of  the  county  clerk : 

"The  next  morning,  December  2,  1819,  I  is- 
sued the  license,  and  the  same  day  they  were 

51 

4 — Lincoln. 


The  Story  of  Young 

married,  bundled  up,  and  started  for  home." 
Imagine  the  glad  surprise  of  the  three  chil- 
dren who  had  been  left  at  home  for  weeks,  when 
they  saw  a  smart,  covered  wagon,  drawn  by  f  our 
horses,  driven  up  before  the  cabin  door  one 
bright  winter  day,  and  their  father,  active  and 
alert,  spring  out  and  assist  a  pleasant-looking 
woman  and  three  children  to  alight!  Then 
they  were  told  that  this  woman  was  to  be  their 
mother  and  they  had  two  more  sisters  and  an- 
other brother  1 

To  the  poor  forlorn  Lincoln  children  and  their 
still  more  desolate  cousin,  it  seemed  too  good  to 
be  true.  They  quickly  learned  the  names  of 
their  new  brother  and  sisters.  The  Johnston 
children  were  called  John,  Sarah  and  Matilda, 
so  Sarah  Lincoln's  name  was  promptly  changed 
to  Nancy  for  her  dead  mother,  as  there  were  two 
Sarahs  already  in  the  combined  family. 

Mrs.  Sarah  Bush  Johnston  Lincoln  lost  no 
time  in  taking  poor  Abe  and  Nancy  Lincoln  to 
her  great  motherly  heart,  as  if  they  were  her 
own.  They  were  dirty,  for  they  had  been 
neglected,  ill-used  and  deserted.  She  washed 
their  wasted  bodies  clean  and  dressed  them  in 
nice  warm  clothing  provided  for  her  own  chil- 

52 


Abraham  Lincoln 

dren,  till  she,  as  she  expressed  it,  *^made  them 
look  more  human." 

Demiis  Hanks  told  afterward  of  the  great 
difference  the  stepmother  made  in  their  young 
lives : 

*'In  fact,  in  a  few  weeks  all  had  changed;  and 
where  everything  had  been  wanting,  all  was 
snug  and  comfortable.  She  was  a  woman  of 
great  energy,  of  remarkable  good  sense,  v^y  in- 
dustrious and  saving,  also  very  neat  and  tidy  in 
her  person  and  manners.  She  took  an  especial 
liking  for  young  Abe.  Her  love  for  him  was 
warmly  returned,  and  continued  to  the  day  of 
his  death.  But  few  children  love  their  parents 
as  he  loved  his  stepmother.  She  dressed  him  up 
in  entire  new  clothes,  and  from  that  time  on  he 
appeared  to  lead  a  new  life.  He  was  encouraged 
by  her  to  study,  and  a  wish  on  his  part  was 
gratified  when  it  could  be  done.  The  two  sets  of 
children  got  along  finely  together,  as  if  they  all 
had  been  the  children  of  the  same  parents." 

Dennis  also  referred  to  the  ''large  supply  of 
household  goods"  the  new  mother  brought  with 
her: 

"One  fine  bureau  (worth  $40),  one  table,  one 
set  of  chairs,  one  large  clothes  chest,  cooking 

53 


The  Story  of  Young 

utensils,    knives,    forks,    bedding    and    other 
articles/' 

It  must  have  been  a  glorious  day  when  such  a 
splendid  array  of  household  furniture  was  car- 
ried into  the  rude  cabin  of  Thomas  Lincoln. 
But  best  of  all,  the  new  wife  had  sufficient  tact 
and  force  of  mil  to  induce  her  good-hearted  but 
shiftless  husband  to  lay  a  floor,  put  in  a  window, 
and  hang  a  door  to  protect  his  doubled  family 
from  the  cold.  It  was  about  Christmas  time, 
and  the  Lincoln  children,  as  they  nestled  in 
warm  beds  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives,  must 
have  thanked  their  second  mother  from  the  bot- 
toms of  their  grateful  hearts. 


CHAPTER  VI 


School  Days  Now  and  Then- 


Lincoln  once  wrote,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend, 
about  his  early  teachers  in  Indiana : 

**He  (father)  removed  from  Kentucky  to  what 
is  now  Spencer  County,  Indiana,  in  my  eighth 
year.    We  reached  our  new  home  about  the  time 

54 


Abraham  Lincoln 

the  State  came  into  the  Union.  It  was  a  wild 
region  with  many  bears  and  other  wild  animals 
still  in  the  woods.  There  I  grew  up.  There 
were  some  schools,  so-called;  but  no  qualifica- 
tion was  ever  required  of  a  teacher  beside 
readin',  writin',  and  cipherin'  to  the  Rule  of 
Three  (simple  proportion).  If  a  straggler  sup- 
posed to  understand  Latin  happened  to  sojourn 
in  the  neighborhood,  he  was  looked  upon  as  a 
wizard.  There  was  absolutely  nothing  to  excite 
ambition  for  education.'' 

Abe's  first  teacher  in  Indiana,  however,  was 
Hazel  Dorsey.  The  school  house  was  built  of 
rough,  round  logs.  The  chimney  was  made  of 
poles  well  covered  with  clay.  The  windows  were 
spaces  cut  in  the  logs,  and  covered  with  greased 
paper.  But  Abe  was  determined  to  learn.  He 
and  his  sister  thought  nothing  of  walking  four 
miles  a  day  through  snow,  rain  and  mud.  ^ '  Nat ' ' 
Grigsby,  who  afterward  married  the  sister, 
spoke  in  glowing  terms  of  Abe's  few  school 
days: 

**He  was  always  at  school  early,  and  attended 
to  his  studies.  He  lost  no  time  at  home,  and 
when  not  at  work  was  at  his  books.  He  kept  up 
his  studies  on  Sunday,  and  carried  his  books 

55 


The  Story  of  Young 

with  him  to  work,  so  that  he  might  read  when 
he  rested  from  labor." 

Thomas  Lincohi  had  no  use  for  ^'eddication," 
as  he  called  it.  ''It  will  spile  the  boy/'  he  kept 
saying.  He — the  father — ^had  got  along  better 
without  going  to  school,  and  why  should  Abe 
have  a  better  education  than  his  father.  He 
thought  Abe's  studious  habits  were  due  to  "pure 
laziness,  jest  to  git  shet  o'  workin'."  So,  when- 
ever there  was  the  slightest  excuse,  he  took  Abe 
out  of  school  and  set  him  to  work  at  home  or  for 
one  of  the  neighbors,  while  he  himself  went 
hunting  or  loafed  about  the  house. 

This  must  have  been  very  trying  to  a  boy  as 
hungry  to  learn  as  Abe  Lincoln  was.  His  new 
mother  saw  and  sympathized  with  him,  and  in 
her  quiet  way,  managed  to  get  the  boy  started 
to  school,  for  a  few  weeks  at  most.  For  some 
reason  Hazel  Horsey  stopped  ''keeping"  the 
school,  and  there  was  a  long  "vacation"  for  all 
the  children.  But  a  new  man,  Andrew  Craw- 
ford, came  and  settled  near  Gentryville.  Hav- 
ing nothing  better  to  do  at  first,  he  was  urged  to 
reopen  the  school. 

One  evening  Abe  came  in  from  his  work  and 
his  stepmother  greeted  him  with : 

56 


Abraham  Lincoln 

^^ Another  chance  for  you  to  go  to  school." 

**  Where  r' 

^'That  man  Crawford  that  moved  in  a  while 
ago  is  to  begin  school  next  week,  and  two  miles 
and  back  every  day  will  be  just  about  enough 
for  you  to  walk  to  keep  your  legs  limber." 

The  tactful  wife  accomplished  it  somehow  and 
Abe  started  ofl  to  school  with  Nancy,  and  a  light 
heart.  A  neighbor  described  him  as  he  ap- 
peared in  Crawford's  school,  as  ''long,  wiry  and 
strong,  while  his  big  feet  and  hands,  and  the 
length  of  his  legs  and  arms,  were  out  of  all  pro- 
portion to  his  small  trunk  and  head.  His  com- 
plexion was  swarthy,  and  his  skin  shriveled  and 
yellow  even  then.  He  wore  low  shoes,  buckskin 
breeches,  linsey-woolsey  shirt,  and  a  coonskin 
cap.  The  breeches  hung  close  to  his  legs,  but 
were  far  from  meeting  the  tops  of  his  shoes, 
exposing  'twelve  inches  of  shinbone,  sharp,  blue 
and  narrow.'  " 

"Yet,"  said  Nat  Grigsby,  "he  was  always  in 
good  health,  never  sick,  and  had  an  excellent  con- 
stitution." 

HELPING  KATE  ROBT  SPELL 

Andrew  Crawford  must  have  been  an  unusual 

57 


The  Story  of  Young 

^  f 
man,  for  lie  tried  to  teach  ''manners"  in  his 

backwoods  school!     Spelling  was  considered  a 

great  accomplishment.    Abe  shone  as  a  speller 

in  school  and  at  the  spelling-matches.    One  day, 

evidently  during  a  period  when  young  Lincoln 

was  kept  from  school  to  do  some  outside  work 

for  his  father,  he  appeared  at  the  window  when 

the  class  in  spelling  was  on  the  floor.    The  word 

"defied"  was  given  out  and  several  pupils  had 

misspelled  it.    Kate  Roby,  the  pretty  girl  of  the 

village,  was  stammering  over  it.    "D-e-f,"  said 

Kate,  then  she  hesitated  over  the  next  letter. 

Abe  pointed  to  his  eye  and  winked  significantly. 

The   girl   took  the  hint   and  went   on   glibly 

"i-e-d,"  and  ''went  up  head." 

"i  DID  it!" 

There  was  a  buck's  head  nailed  over  the 
school  house  door.  It  proved  a  temptation  to 
young  Lincoln,  who  was  tall  enough  to  reach  it 
easily.  One  day  the  schoolmaster  discovered 
that  one  horn  w^as  broken  and  he  demanded  to 
know  who  had  done  the  damage.  There  was 
silence  and  a  general  denial  till  Abe  spoke  up 
sturdily : 

"I  did  it.    I  did  not  mean  to  do  it,  but  I  hung 

58 


Abraham  Lincoln 

on  it — and  it  broke!"  The  other  boys  thought 
Abe  was  foolish  to  ''own  up"  till  he  had  to — but 
that  was  his  way. 

It  is  doubtful  if  Abe  Lincoln  owned  an  arith- 
metic. He  had  a  copybook,  made  by  himself,  in 
which  he  entered  tables  of  weights  and  meas- 
ures and  ''sums"  he  had  to  do.  Among  these 
was  a  specimen  of  schoolboy  doggerel ; 


a 


Abraham  Lincoln, 
His  hand  and  pen, 

He  will  be  good — 
But  God  knows  whenl" 


In  another  place  he  wrote  some  solemn  reflec- 
tions on  the  value  of  time : 

' '  Time,  what  an  empty  vapor  'tis, 

And  days,  how  swift  they  are! 
Swift  as  an  Indian  arrow — 

Fly  on  like  a  shooting  star. 
The  present  moment,  just,  is  here, 

Then  slides  away  in  haste. 
That  we  can  never  say  they're  ours, 

But  only  say  they're  past.' 


>> 


As  he  grew  older  his  handwriting  improved 
and  he  was  often  asked  to  "set  copies"  for  other 

59 


The  Story  of  Young 

boys  lo  follow.    In  the  book  of  a  boy  named 
Richardson,  he  wrote  this  prophetic  couplet : 

*'Good  boys  who  to  their  books  apply 
Will  all  be  great  men  by  and  by/' 

A  ** mother's  boy" — HIS  FOOD  AND  CLOTHING 

Dennis  Hanks  related  of  his  young  com- 
panion: ''As  far  as  food  and  clothing  were  con- 
cerned, the  boy  had  plenty — such  as  it  was — 
*  corndodgers,'  bacon  and  game,  some  fish  and 
wild  fruits.  We  had  very  little  wheat  flour. 
The  nearest  mill  was  eighteen  miles.  A  boss 
mill  it  was,  with  a  plug  (old  horse)  pullin'  a 
beam  around ;  and  Abe  used  to  say  his  dog  could 
stand  and  eat  the  flour  as  fast  as  it  was  made, 
and  then  he  ready  for  supper! 

*'For  clothing  he  had  jeans.  He  was  grown 
before  he  wore  all-wool  pants.  It  was  a  new 
country,  and  he  was  a  raw  boy,  rather  a  bright 
and  likely  lad;  but  the  big  world  seemed  far 
ahead  of  him.  We  were  all  slow-goin'  folks. 
But  he  had  the  stuff  of  greatness  in  him.  He 
got  his  rare  sense  and  sterling  principles  from 
both  parents.  But  Abe's  kindliness,  humor, 
love  of  humanity,  hatred  of  slavery,  all  came 

60 


Abraham  Lincoln 

from  his  mother.  I  am  free  to  say;  Abe  was  a 
'mother's  boy/  " 

Dennis  used  to  like  to  tell  of  Abe's  earliest 
ventures  in  the  fields  of  literature:  ''His  first 
readin'  book  was  Webster's  speller.  Then  he 
got  hold  of  a  book — I  can't  rickilect  the  name. 
It  told  about  a  feller,  a  nigger  or  suthin',  that 
sailed  a  flatboat  up  to  a  rock,  and  the  rock  was 
magnetized  and  drawed  the  nails  out  of  his  boat, 
an'  he  got  a  duckin',  or  drownded,  or  suthin',  I 
forget  now.  (This  book,  of  course,  was  'The 
Arabian  Nights.')  Abe  would  lay  on  the  floor 
with  a  chair  under  his  head,  and  laugh  over 
them  stories  by  the  hour.  I  told  him  they  was 
likely  lies  from  end  to  end;  but  he  learned  to 
read  right  well  in  them. ' ' 

His  stock  of  books  was  small,  but  they  were 
the  right  kind — the  Bible,  "The  Pilgrim's  Prog- 
ress," ^sop's  Fables,  "Robinson  Crusoe,"  a 
history  of  the  United  States,  and  the  Statutes 
of  Indiana.  This  last  was  a  strange  book  for  a 
boy  to  read,  but  Abe  pored  over  it  as  eagerly  as 
a  lad  to-day  might  read  "The  Three  Guards- 
men," or  "The  Hound  of  the  Baskervilles." 
He  made  notes  of  what  he  read  with  his  turkey- 
buzzard  pen  and  brier-root  ink.    If  he  did  not 

61 


The  Story  of  Young 

have  these  handy,  he  would  write  with  a  piece  of 
charcoal  or  the  charred  end  of  a  stick,  on  a 
board,  or  on  the  under  side  of  a  chair  or  bench. 
He  used  the  wooden  fire  shovel  for  a  slate,  shav- 
ing it  off  clean  when  both  sides  were  full  of  fig- 
ures. When  he  got  hold  of  paper  enough  to 
make  a  copy-book  he  would  go  about  transfer- 
ring his  notes  from  boards,  beams,  under  sides 
of  the  chairs  and  the  table,  and  from  all  the 
queer  places  he  had  put  them  down,  on  the  spur 
of  the  moment. 

Besides  the  books  he  had  at  hand,  he  borrowed 
all  he  could  get,  often  walking  many  miles  for 
a  book,  until,  as  he  once  told  a  friend,  he  ^'read 
through  every  book  he  had  ever  heard  of  in  that 
country,  for  a  circuit  of  fifty  miles" — quite  a 
circulating  library  1 

**THE  BEGINN-ING  OF  LO^T" 

''The  thoughts  of  youth  are  long,  long 
thoughts."  It  must  have  been  about  this  time 
that  the  lad  had  the  following  experience,  which 
he  himself  related  to  a  legal  friend,  with  his 
chair  tilted  back  and  his  Imees  ''cocked 
up"  in  the  mamier  described  by  Cousin  John 

Hanks : 

62 


rM^gfffim" 


HIS   STOCK   OF   BOOKS   WAS    SMALL,    BUT   THEY   WERE   THE 

RIGHT  KIND. 


Abraham  Lincoln 

*^Did  you  ever  write  out  a  story  in  your  mind? 
I  did  when  I  was  little  codger.  One  day  a  wagon 
with  a  lady  and  two  girls  and  a  man  broke  down 
near  us,  and  while  they  were  fixing  up,  they 
cooked  in  our  kitchen.  The  woman  had  books 
and  read  us  stories,  and  they  were  the  first  of 
the  kind  I  ever  heard.  I  took  a  great  fancy  to 
one  of  the  girls;  and  when  they  were  gone  I 
thought  of  her  a  good  deal,  and  one  day,  when 
I  was  sitting  out  in  the  sun  by  the  house,  I  wrote 
out  a  story  in  my  mind. 

*'I  thought  I  took  my  father's  horse  and  fol- 
lowed the  wagon,  and  finally  I  found  it,  and 
they  were  surprised  to  see  me. 

*'I  talked  mth  the  girl  and  persuaded  her  to 
elope  with  me ;  and  that  night  I  put  her  on  my 
horse  and  we  started  off  across  the  prairie. 
After  several  hours  we  came  to  a  camp;  and 
when  we  rode  up  we  found  it  was  one  we  had 
left  a  few  hours  before  and  went  in. 

*^The  next  night  we  tried  again,  and  the  same 
thing  happened — the  horse  came  back  to  the 
same  place ;  and  then  we  concluded  we  ought  not 
to  elope.  I  stayed  until  I  had  persuaded  her 
father  that  he  ought  to  give  her  to  me. 

"I  always  meant  to  write  that  story  out  and 

63 


The  Story  of  Young 

publish  it,  and  I  began  once ;  but  I  concluded  it 
was  not  much  of  a  story. 

''But  I  think  that  was  the  beginning  of  love 
with  me." 

HOW  ABE  CAME  TO  OWN  WEEMS'S  ''LIFE  OP 
WASHINGTON  " 

Abe's  chief  delight,  if  permitted  to  do  so,  was 
to  lie  in  the  shade  of  some  inviting  tree  and 
read.  He  liked  to  lie  on  his  stomach  before  the 
fire  at  night,  and  often  read  as  long  as  this  flick- 
ering light  lasted.  He  sometimes  took  a  book 
to  bed  to  read  as  soon  as  the  morning  light  began 
to  come  through  the  chinks  between  the  logs  be- 
side his  bed.  He  once  placed  a  book  between 
the  logs  to  have  it  handy  in  the  morning,  and  a 
storm  came  up  and  soaked  it  with  dirty  water 
from  the  "mud-daubed"  mortar,  plastered  be- 
tween the  logs  of  the  cabin. 

The  book  happened  to  be  Weems's  "Life  of 
Washington."  Abe  was  in  a  sad  dilemma. 
What  could  he  say  to  the  owner  of  the  book, 
which  he  had  borrowed  from  the  meanest  man 
in  the  neighborhood,  Josiah  Crawford,  who  was 
so  unpopular  that  he  went  by  the  nickname  of 
"Old  Blue  Nose"? 

64 


Abraham  Lincoln 

The  only  course  was  to  show  the  angry  owner 
his  precious  volume,  warped  and  stained  as  it 
was,  and  offer  to  do  anything  he  could  to  repay 
him. 

^'Abe,'^  said  ''Old  Blue  Nose,''  with  blood- 
curdling friendliness,  ''bein'  as  it's  you,  Abe,  I 
won't  be  hard  on  you.  You  jest  come  over  and 
pull  fodder  for  me,  and  the  book  is  yours." 

''All  right,"  said  Abe,  his  deep-set  eyes  twink- 
ling in  spite  of  himself  at  the  thought  of  own- 
ing the  story  of  the  life  of  the  greatest  of  heroes, 
"how  much  fodder?" 

"Wal,"  said  old  Josiah,  "that  book's  worth 
seventy-five  cents,  at  least.  You  kin  earn  twenty- 
five  cents  a  day — that  will  make  three  days. 
You  come  and  pull  all  you  can  in  three  days  and 
you  may  have  the  book." 

That  was  an  exorbitant  price,  even  if  the  book 
were  new,  but  Abe  was  at  the  old  man's  mercy. 
He  realized  this,  and  made  the  best  of  a  bad  bar- 
gain. He  cheerfully  did  the  work  for  a  man  who 
was  mean  enough  to  take  advantage  of  his  mis- 
fortune. He  comforted  himself  with  the 
thought  that  he  would  be  the  owner  of  the 
precious  "Life  of  Washington."  Long  after- 
ward, in  a  speech  before  the  New  Jersey  Legis- 

65 


The  Story  of  Young 

lature,  on  his  way  to  Washington  to  be  inaugu- 
rated, like  Washington,  as  President  of  the 
United  States,  he  referred  to  this  strange  book. 

''the  whole  truth  and  nothing  but  the 

truth" 

One  morning,  on  his  way  to  work,  with  an  ax 
on  his  shoulder,  his  stepsister,  Matilda  Johns- 
ton, though  forbidden  by  her  mother  to  follow 
Abe,  crept  after  him,  and  with  a  cat-like  spring 
landed  between  his  shoulders  and  pressed  her 
sharp  knees  into  the  small  of  his  back. 

Taken  unawares,  Abe  staggered  backward 
and  ax  and  girl  fell  to  the  ground  together.  The 
sharp  implement  cut  her  ankle  badly,  and  mis- 
chievous Matilda  shrieked  with  fright  and  pain 
when  she  saw  the  blood  gushing  from  the  womid. 
Young  Lincoln  tore  a  sleeve  from  his  shirt  to 
bandage  the  gash  and  bomid  up  the  ankle  as 
well  as  he  could.  Then  he  tried  to  teach  the  still 
sobbing  girl  a  lesson. 


a 


'Tilda,"  he  said  gently,  *'I'm  surprised. 
Wliy  did  you  disobey  mother?" 

Matilda  only  wept  silently,  and  the  lad  went 
on,  ''What  are  you  going  to  tell  mother  about 
it?" 

66 


Abraham  Lincoln 

'^Tell  lier  I  did  it  with  the  ax,"  sobbed  the 
young  girl.    ''That  will  be  the  truth,  too." 

''Yes,"  said  Abe  severely,  "that's  the  truth, 
but  not  all  the  truth.  You  just  tell  the  whole 
truth,  'Tilda,  and  trust  mother  for  the  rest." 

Matilda  went  limping  home  and  told  her 
mother  the  whole  story,  and  the  good  woman  was 
so  sorry  for  her  that,  as  the  girl  told  Abe  that 
evening,  "she  didn't  even  scold  me.' 


>> 


a 


bounding  a  thought — north,  south,  east  and 

west" 

Abe  sometimes  heard  things  in  the  simple 
conversation  of  friends  that  disturbed  him  be- 
cause they  seemed  beyond  his  comprehension. 
He  said  of  this : 

"I  remember  how,  when  a  child,  I  used  to  get 
irritated  when  any  one  talked  to  me  in  a  way  I 
couldn't  imder stand. 

"I  do  not  think  I  ever  got  angry  with  any- 
thing else  in  my  life ;  but  that  always  disturbed 
my  temper — and  has  ever  since. 

"I  can  remember  going  to  my  little  bedroom, 
after  hearing  the  neighbors  talk  of  an  evening 
with  my  father,  and  spending  no  small  part  of 
the  night  walking  up  and  down,  trying  to  make 

67 

5 — Lincoln, 


The  Story  of  Young 

out  what  was  the  exact  meaning  of  some  of 
their,  to  me,  dark  sayings. 

*'I  could  not  sleep,  although  I  tried  to,  when 
I  got  on  such  a  hunt  for  an  idea;  and  when  I 
thought  I  had  got  it,  I  was  not  satisfied  until  I 
had  repeated  it  over  and  over,  and  had  put  in 
language  plain  enough,  as  I  thought,  for  any 
boy  I  'knew  to  comprehend. 

^^This  was  a  kind  of  a  passion  with  me,  and 
it  has  stuck  by  me;  for  I  am  never  easy  now 
when  I  am  bounding  a  thought,  till  I  have 
bounded  it  east,  and  bounded  it  west,  and 
bounded  it  north,  and  bounded  it  south." 

HIGH  PRAISE  FROM  HIS  STEPMOTHER 

Not  long  before  her  death,  Mr.  Herndon,  Lin- 
coln's law  partner,  called  upon  Mrs.  Sarah  Lin- 
coln to  collect  material  for  a  ''Life  of  Lincoln" 
he  was  preparing  to  write.  This  was  the  best  of 
all  the  things  she  related  of  her  illustrious  step- 
son: 

''I  can  say  what  scarcely  one  mother  in  a 
thousand  can  say,  Abe  never  gave  me  a  cross 
word  or  look,  and  never  refused,  in  fact  or  ap- 
pearance, to  do  anything  I  asked  him.  His 
mind  and  mine  seemed  to  run  together. 

68 


Abraham  Lincoln 


{f 


1  had  a  son,  John,  who  was  raised  with  Abe. 
Both  were  good  boys,  but  I  must  say,  both  now 
being  dead,  that  Abe  was  the  best  boy  I  ever  saw 
or  expect  to  see." 

'^Charity  begins  at  home'^ — and  so  do  truth 
and  honesty.  Abraham  Lincoln  could  not  have 
become  so  popular  all  over  the  world  on  account 
of  his  honest  kindheartedness  if  he  had  not  been 
loyal,  obedient  and  loving  toward  those  at  home. 
Popularity,  also,  ^'begins  at  home.''  A  mean, 
disagreeable,  dishonest  boy  may  become  a  king, 
because  he  was  ''to  the  manner  born."  But  only 
a  good,  kind,  honest  man,  considerate  of  others, 
can  be  elected  President  of  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER  VII 


Abe  and  the  Neighbors 


"preaching"  against  cruelty  to  animals 

Nat  Grigsby  stated  once  that  writing  compo- 
sitions was  not  required  by  Schoolmaster  Craw- 
ford, but  ''Abe  took  it  up  on  his  own  account," 

69 


The  Stoiy  of  Young 

and  Ms  first  essay  was  against  cruelty  to  ani- 
mals. 

The  boys  of  the  neighborhood  made  a  practice 
of  catching  terrapins  and  laying  live  coals  on 
their  backs.  Abe  caught  a  group  of  them  at  this 
cruel  sport  one  day,  and  rushed  to  the  relief  of 
the  helpless  turtle.  Snatching  the  shingle  that 
one  of  the  boys  was  using  to  handle  the  coals,  he 
brushed  them  off  the  turtle's  shell,  and  with 
angry  tears  in  his  eyes,  proceeded  to  use  it  on 
one  of  the  offenders,  while  he  called  the  rest  a 
lot  of  cowards. 

One  day  his  stepbrother,  John  Johnston,  ac- 
cording to  his  sister  Matilda,  ''caught  a  terra- 
pin, brought  it  to  the  place  where  Abe  was 
*  preaching,'  threw  it  against  a  tree  and  crushed 
its  shell.  Abe  then  preached  against  cruelty  to 
animals,  contending  that  ''an  ant's  life  is  as 
sweet  to  it  as  ours  is  to  us." 

EOUGHLT  DISCIPLIJTED  FOR  BEIJTG  " FORWARD" 

Abe  was  compelled  to  leave  school  on  the 
slightest  pretext  to  work  for  the  neighbors.  He 
was  so  big  and  strong — attaining  his  full  height 
at  seventeen — that  his  services  were  more  in  de- 
mand than  those  of  his  stepbrother,  John  Johns- 

70 


Abraham  Lincoln 

ton,  or  of  Cousin  Dennis.  Abe  was  called  lazy 
because  the  neighbors  shared  the  idea  of 
Thomas  Lincoln,  that  his  reading  and  studjdng 
were  only  a  pretext  for  shirking.  Yet  he  was 
never  so  idle  as  either  Dennis  Hanks  or  John 
Johnston,  who  were  permitted  to  go  hunting  or 
fishing  with  Tom  Lincoln,  while  Abe  stayed  out 
of  school  to  do  the  work  that  one  of  the  three 
older  men  should  have  done. 

Abe's  father  was  kinder  in  many  ways  to  his 
stepchildren  than  he  was  to  his  own  son.  This 
may  have  been  due  to  the  fact  that  he  did  not 
wish  to  be  thought  ''partial"  to  his  own  child. 
No  doubt  Abe  was  ''forward."  Lie  liked  to 
take  part  in  any  discussion,  and  sometimes  he 
broke  into  the  conversation  when  his  opinion 
had  not  been  asked.  Besides,  he  got  into  argu- 
ments with  his  fellow-laborers,  and  wasted  the 
time  belonging  to  his  employer. 

One  day,  according  to  Dennis,  they  were  all 
working  together  in  the  field,  when  a  man  rode 
up  on  horseback  and  asked  a  question.  Abe  was 
the  first  to  mount  the  fence  to  answer  the 
stranger  and  engage  him  in  conversation.  To 
teach  his  son  better  "manners"  in  the  presence 
of  his  "superiors,"  Thomas  Lincoln  struck  Abe 

71 


The  Story  of  Young 

a  heavy  blow  which  knocked  him  backward  off 
the  fence,  and  silenced  him  for  a  time. 

Of  course,  every  one  present  laughed  at  Abe's 
discomfiture,  and  the  neighbors  approved  of 
Thomas  Lincoln's  rude  act  as  a  matter  of  dis- 
cipline. In  their  opinion  Abe  Lincoln  was  get- 
ting altogether  too  smart.  While  they  enjoyed 
his  homely  wit  and  good  nature,  they  did  not 
like  to  admit  that  he  was  in  any  way  their  su- 
perior. A  visitor  to  Springfield,  111.,  will 
even  now  find  some  of  Lincoln's  old  neighbors 
eager  to  say  'Hhere  were  a  dozen  smarter  men 
in  this  city  than  Lincoln"  when  he  ^^ happened 
to  get  nominated  for  the  presidency!" 

SPORTS  AND  PASTIMES 

Abe  was  *'hail  fellow,  well  met"  everywhere. 
The  women  comprehended  his  true  greatness 
before  the  men  did  so.  There  was  a  rough  gal- 
lantry about  him,  which,  though  lacking  in 
'' polish,"  was  true,  '^heart-of-oak"  politeness. 
He  wished  every  one  well.  His  whole  life  passed 
with  ^'malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for 
all." 

When  he  '^went  out  evenings"  Abe  Lincoln 
took  the  greatest  pains  to  make  everybody  com- 

72 


Abraham  Lincoln 

f  ortable  and  happy.  He  was  sure  to  bring  in  the 
biggest  backlog  and  make  the  brightest  fire.  He 
read  ''the  funniest  fortunes"  for  the  young 
people  from  the  sparks  as  they  flew  up  the  chim- 
ney. He  was  the  best  helper  in  paring  the 
apples,  shelling  the  corn  and  cracking  the  nuts 
for  the  evening's  refreshments. 

When  he  went  to  spelling  school,  after  the  first 
few  times,  he  was  not  allowed  to  take  part  in  the 
spelling  match  because  everybody  knew  that  the 
side  that  ''chose  first '^  would  get  Abe  Lincoln 
and  he  always  "spelled  down.''  But  he  went 
just  the  same  and  had  a  good  time  himself  if  he 
could  add  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  rest. 

He  went  swimming,  warm  evenings,  with  the 
boys,  and  ran  races,  jumped  and  wrestled  at 
noon-times,  which  was  supposed  to  be  given  up 
to  eating  and  resting.  He  was  "the  life"  of  the 
husking-bee  and  barn  raising,  and  was  always 
present,  often  as  a  judge  because  of  his  humor, 
fairness  and  tact,  at  horse  races.  He  engaged 
heartily  in  every  kind  of  "manly  sport"  which 
did  not  entail  unnecessary  suffering  upon  help- 
less animals. 

Coon  hunting,  however,  was  an  exception. 
The  coon  was  a  pest  and  a  plague  to  the  farmer, 

73 


The  Story  of  Young 

so  it  should  be  got  rid  of.    He  once  told  the  fol- 
lowing story: 

THE  LITTLE  YELLOW  "COON'  DOG" 

''My  father  had  a  little  yellow  house  dog 
which  invariably  gave  the  alarm  if  we  boys  un- 
dertook to  slip  away  unobserved  after  night  had 
set  in — as  we  sometimes  did — to  go  coon  hunt- 
ing. One  night  my  brother,  John  Johnston,  and 
I,  with  the  usual  complement  of  boys  required 
for  a  successful  coon  hunt,  took  the  insignificant 
little  cur  with  us. 

''We  located  the  coveted  coon,  killed  him,  and 
then  in  a  sporting  vein,  sewed  the  coon  skin  on 
the  little  dog. 

"It  struggled  vigorously  during  the  operation 
of  sewing  on,  and  when  released  made  a  bee-line 
for  home.  Some  larger  dogs  on  the  way,  scent- 
ing coon,  tracked  the  little  animal  home  and  ap- 
parently mistaking  him  for  a  real  coon,  speedily 
demolished  him.  The  next  morning,  father 
found,  lying  in  his  yard,  the  lifeless  remains  of 
yellow  'Joe,'  with  strong  circumstantial  evi- 
dence, in  the  form  of  fragments  of  coon  skin, 
against  us. 

"Father  was  much  incensed  at  his  death,  but 

74 


Abraham  Lincoln 

as  John  and  I,  scantily  protected  from  the  morn- 
ing wind,  stood  shivering  in  the  doorway,  we 
felt  assured  that  little  yellow  Joe  would  never 
again  be  able  to  sound  the  alarm  of  another 
coon  hunt.'* 

THE  ^^CHIN"  fly"  AS  AN  INCENTIVE  TO  WORK 

While  he  was  President,  Mr.  Lincoln  told 
Henry  J.  Raymond,  the  founder  of  the  New 
York  Times,  the  following  story  of  an  experi- 
ence he  had  about  this  time,  while  working  with 
his  stepbrother  in  a  cornfield : 

^^ Raymond,"  said  he,  ''you  were  brought  up 
on  a  farm,  were  you  not  ?  Then  you  know  what 
a  'chin  fly'  is.  My  brother  and  I  were  plowing 
corn  once,  I  driving  the  horse  and  he  holding 
the  plow.  The  horse  was  lazy,  but  on  one  occa- 
sion he  rushed  across  the  field  so  that  I,  with  my 
long  legs,  could  scarcely  keep  pace  with  him. 
On  reaching  the  end  of  the  furrow  I  found  an 
enormous  chin  fly  fastened  upon  the  horse  and 
I  knocked  it  off.  My  brother  asked  me  what  I 
did  that  for.  I  told  him  I  didn't  want  the  old 
horse  bitten  in  that  way. 

"  'Why,'  said  my  brother,  'that's  all  that 
made  him  go.'  " 

75 


The  Story  of  Young 

"Now  if  Mr.  Chase  (the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury)  has  a  presidential  'chin  fly'  biting 
him,  I'm  not  going  to  knock  it  off,  if  it  will  only 
make  his  department  go." 

"old  blue  nose's"  hired  man 

It  seemed  to  be  the  "irony  of  fate"  that  Abe 
should  have  to  work  for  "Old  Blue  Nose"  as  a 
farm  hand.  But  the  lad  liked  Mrs.  Crawford, 
and  Lincoln's  sister  Nancy  lived  there,  at  the 
same  time,  as  maid-of -all- work.  Another  attrac- 
tion, the  Crawford  family  was  rich,  in  Abe's 
eyes,  in  possessing  several  books,  which  he  was 
glad  of  the  chance  to  read. 

Mrs.  Crawford  told  many  things  about  young 
Lincoln  that  might  otherwise  have  been  lost. 
She  said  "Abe  was  very  polite,  in  his  awkward 
way,  taking  off  his  hat  to  me  and  bowing.  He 
was  a  sensitive  lad,  never  coming  where  he  was 
not  wanted.  He  was  tender  and  kind — ^like  his 
sister. 

"He  liked  to  hang  around  and  gossip  and  joke 
with  the  women.  After  he  had  wasted  too  much 
time  this  way,  he  would  exclaim : 

"  'Well,  this  won't  buy  the  child  a  coat,' 
and  the   long-legged  hired  boy  would   stride 

76 


Abraham  Lincoln 

away     and     catch     up     with     the     others." 

One  day  when  he  was  asked  to  kill  a  hog,  Abe 
answered  promptly  that  he  had  never  done  that, 
'*but  if  you'll  risk  the  hog,  I'll  risk  myself!" 

Mrs.  Crawford  told  also  about  "going  to  meet- 
ing" in  those  primitive  days: 

''At  that  time  we  thought  it  nothing  to  go 
eight  or  ten  miles.  The  ladies  did  not  stop  for 
the  want  of  a  shawl  or  riding  dress,  or  horses. 
In  the  winter  time  they  would  put  on  their  hus- 
bands' old  overcoats,  wrap  up  their  little  ones, 
and  take  two  or  three  of  them  on  their  beasts, 
while  their  husbands  would  walk. 

''In  winter  time  they  would  hold  church  in 
some  of  the  neighbors'  houses.  At  such  times 
they  were  always  treated  with  the  utmost  kind- 
ness; a  basket  of  apples,  or  turnips — apples 
were  scarce  in  those  days — was  set  out.  Some- 
times potatoes  were  used  for  a  'treat.'  In  old 
Mr.  Linkhorn's  (Lincoln's)  house  a  plate  of  po- 
tatoes, washed  and  pared  nicely,  was  handed 
around." 

FEATS  OF  STRENGTH 

Meanwhile  the  boy  was  growing  to  tall  man- 
hood, both  in  body  and  in  mind.    The  neighbors, 

77 


The  Story  of  Young 

who  failed  to  mark  his  mental  growth,  were 
greatly  impressed  with  his  physical  strength. 
The  Richardson  family,  with  whom  Abe  seemed 
to  have  lived  as  hired  man,  used  to  tell  marvel- 
ous tales  of  his  prowess,  some  of  which  may 
have  gro\^'n  somewhat  in  the  telling.  Mr.  Rich- 
ardson declared  that  the  young  man  could  carry 
as  heavy  a  load  as  ''three  ordinary  men."  He 
saw  Abe  pick  up  and  walk  away  with  ' '  a  chicken 
house,  made  up  of  poles  pinned  together,  and 
covered,  that  weighed  at  least  six  hundred  if  not 
much  more." 

When  the  Eichardsons  were  building  their 
corn-crib,  Abe  saw  three  or  four  men  getting 
ready  to  carry  several  huge  posts  or  timbers  on 
''sticks"  between  them.  Watching  his  chance, 
he  coolly  stepped  in,  shouldered  all  the  timbers 
at  once  and  walked  off  alone  with  them,  carry- 
ing them  to  the  place  desired.  Probably  at  this 
time  yomig  Lincoln  '^n^'ote  for  Joseph  Richard- 
son these  lines  for  a  copy: 

"Good  boys,  who  to  their  books  apply, 
Will  all  be  great  men  by  and  by." 

Another  neighbor,  "old  Mr.  Wood,"  said  of 
Abe:  "He  could  strike,  with  a  maul,  a  heavier 

78 


Abraham  Lincoln 

blow  than  any  other  man.  He  could  sink  an  ax 
deeper  into  wood  than  any  man  I  ever  saw.'^ 

Dennis  Hanks  used  to  tell  that  if  you  heard 
Abe  working  in  the  woods  alone,  felling  trees, 
you  would  think  three  men,  at  least,  were  at 
work  there — ^the  trees  came  crashing  down  so 
fast. 

On  one  occasion  afer  he  had  been  threshing 
wheat  for  Mr.  Turnham,  the  farmer-constable 
whose  "Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana"  Abe  had 
devoured,  Lincoln  was  walking  back,  late  at 
night  from  Gentryville,  where  he  and  a  number 
of  cronies  had  spent  the  evening.  As  the  youths 
were  picking  their  way  along  the  frozen  road, 
they  saw  a  dark  object  on  the  ground  by  the 
roadside.  They  found  it  to  be  an  old  sot  they 
knew  too  well  lying  there,  dead  drunk.  Lincoln 
stopped,  and  the  rest,  knowing  the  tenderness  of 
his  heart,  exclaimed : 

*^Aw,  let  him  alone,  Abe.  'Twon't  do  him  no 
good.    He's  made  his  bed,  let  him  lay  in  it !" 

The  rest  laughed — for  the  "bed''  was  freezing 
mud.  But  Abe  could  see  no  humor  in  the  situa- 
tion. The  man  might  be  run  over,  or  freeze  to 
death.  To  abandon  any  human  being  in  such  a 
plight  seemed  too  monstrous  to  him.    The  other 

79 


The  Story  of  Young 

young  men  hurried  on  in  the  cold,  shrugging 
their  shoulders  and  shaking  their  heads — ''Poor 
Abe! — ^he's  a  hopeless  case/'  and  left  Lincoln 
to  do  the  work  of  a  Good  Samaritan  alone.  He 
had  no  beast  on  which  to  carry  the  dead  weight 
of  the  drunken  man,  whom  he  vainly  tried, 
again  and  again,  to  arouse  to  a  sense  of  the 
predicament  he  was  in.  At  last  the  young  man 
took  up  the  apparently  lifeless  body  of  the  mud- 
covered  man  in  his  strong  arms,  and  carried  him 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  to  a  deserted  cabin,  where 
he  made  up  a  fire  and  warmed  and  nursed  the 
old  drunkard  the  rest  of  that  night.  Then  Abe 
gave  him  ''a  good  talking  to,"  and  the  mifortu- 
nate  man  is  said  to  have  been  so  deeply  im- 
pressed by  the  yomig  man's  kindness  that  he 
heeded  the  temperance  lecture  and  never  again 
risked  his  life  as  he  had  done  that  night.  When 
the  old  man  told  John  Hanks  of  Abe's  Hercu- 
lean e:ffort  to  save  him,  he  added : 

''It  was  mighty  clever  in  Abe  Lincoln  to  tote 
me  to  a  warm  fire  that  cold  night." 

IN  JONES '  STORE 

While  Abe  was  working  for  the  farmers  round 
about  his  father's  farm  he  spent  many  of  his 

80 


Abraham  Lincoln 

evenings  in  Jones'  grocery  'talking  politics" 
and  other  things  with  the  men,  who  also  gath- 
ered there.  Mr.  Jones  took  a  Louisville  paper, 
which  young  Lincoln  read  eagerly.  Slavery  was 
a  live  political  topic  then,  and  Abe  soon  acquired 
quite  a  reputation  as  a  stump  orator. 

As  he  read  the  ^* Indiana  Statutes"  he  was 
supposed  to  *^know  more  law  than  the  con- 
stable." Li  fact,  his  taste  for  the  law  was  so 
pronounced  at  that  early  age  that  he  went,  some- 
times, fifteen  miles  to  Boonville,  as  a  spectator 
in  the  county  court.  Once  he  heard  a  lawyer  of 
ability,  named  Breckinridge,  defend  an  accused 
murderer  there.  It  was  a  great  plea;  the  tall 
country  boy  knew  it  and,  pushing  through  the 
crowd,  reached  out  his  long,  coatless  arm  to  con- 
gratulate the  lawyer,  who  looked  at  the  awk- 
ward youth  in  amazement  and  passed  on  with- 
out acknowledging  Abe's  compliment.  The  two 
men  met  again  in  Washington,  more  than  thirty 
years  later,  under  very  di:ffierent  circumstances. 

But  there  were  things  other  than  politics  dis- 
cussed at  the  country  store,  and  Abe  Lincoln 
often  raised  a  laugh  at  the  expense  of  some 
braggart  or  bully.  There  was  ''Uncle  Jimmy" 
Larkins,  who  posed  as  the  hero  of  his  own 

81 


The  Story  of  Youiig 

stories.  In  acknowledgment  of  Abe's  authority 
as  a  judge  of  horse  flesh,  ''Uncle  Jimmy"  was 
boasting  of  his  horse's  superiority  in  a  recent 
fox  chase.  But  young  Lincoln  seemed  to  pay 
no  heed.    Larkins  repeated : 

"Abe,  I've  got  the  best  horse  in  the  world; 
he  won  the  race  and  never  drew  a  long  breath." 

Young  Lincoln  still  appeared  not  to  be  pay- 

m 

ing  attention.  "Uncle  Jimmy"  persisted.  He 
was  bomid  to  make  Abe  hear.    He  reiterated : 

"I  say,  Abe,  I  have  got  the  best  horse  in  the 
world;  after  all  that  rumiing  he  never  drew  a 
long  breath." 

"Well,  Larkins,"  drawled  young  Lincoln, 
"why  don't  you  tell  us  how  many  short  breaths 
he  drew."  The  laugh  was  on  the  boastful  and 
discomfited  Larkins. 

TRYING  TO  TEACH  ASTRONOMY  TO  A  YOUNG  GIRL 

Abe's  efforts  were  not  always  so  well  received, 
for  he  was  sometimes  misunderstood.  The 
neighbors  used  to  think  the  Lincoln  boy  was  se- 
cretly in  love  with  Kate  Roby,  the  pretty  girl  he 
had  helped  out  of  a  dilemma  in  the  spelling  class. 
Several  years  after  that  episode,  Abe  and  Kate 
were  sitting  on  a  log,  about  sunset,  talking: 

82 


Abraham  Lincoln 

^^Abe/'  said  Kate,  ^Hhe  sun's  goin'  down." 

''Reckon  not,"  Abe  answered,  ''we're  coming 
up,  that's  all." 

"Don't  you  s'pose  I  got  eyes'?" 

"Yes,  I  know  you  have ;  but  it's  the  earth  that 
goes  round.  The  sun  stands  as  still  as  a  tree. 
When  we're  swung  round  so  we  can't  see  it  any 
more,  the  light's  cut  off  and  we  call  it  night." 

"What  a  fool  vou  are,  Abe  Lincoln!"  ex- 
claimed  Kate,  who  was  not  to  blame  for  her  igno- 
rance, for  astronomy  had  never  been  taught  in 
Crawford's  school. 

THE  EARLY  DEATH  OF  SISTER  NANCY 

While  brother  and  sister  were  working  for 
"Old  Blue  Nose,"  Aaron  Grigsby,  "Nat's" 
brother,  was  "paying  attention"  to  Nancy  Lin- 
coln. The}^  were  soon  married.  Nancy  was  only 
eighteen.  When  she  was  nineteen  Mrs.  Aaron 
Grigsby  died.  Her  love  for  Abe  had  almost 
amounted  to  idolatry.  In  some  ways  she  re- 
sembled him.  He,  in  turn,  was  deeply  devoted 
to  his  only  sister. 

The  family  did  not  stay  long  at  Pigeon  Creek 
after  the  loss  of  Nancy,  who  was  buried,  not  be- 
side her  mother,  but  with  the  Grigsbys  in  the 

83 

6 — Lincoln. 


The  Story  of  Young 

churchyard  of  the  old  Pigeon  Creek  meeting- 
house. 

EARNIN'G  HIS  FIRST  DOLLAR 

Much  as  Abraham  Lincoln  had  ''worked  out'' 
as  a  hired  man,  his  father  kept  the  money,  as  he 
had  a  legal  right  to  do,  not  giving  the  boy  any  of 
the  results  of  his  hard  labor,  for,  strong  as  he 
was,  his  pay  was  only  twenty-five  or  thirty  cents 
a  day.  Abe  accepted  this  as  right  and  proper. 
He  never  complained  of  it. 

After  he  became  President,  Lincoln  told  his 
Secretary  of  State  the  following  story  of  the 
first  dollar  he  ever  had  for  his  own ; 

''Seward,"  he  said,  "did  you  ever  hear  how  I 
earned  my  first  dollar  ?  "  "  No, ' '  replied  Seward. 
"Well,"  said  he,  "I  was  about  eighteen  years  of 
age  .  .  .  and  had  constructed  a  flatboat.  .  .  . 
A  steamer  was  going  down  the  river.  We  have, 
you  know,  no  wharves  on  the  western  streams, 
and  the  custom  was,  if  passengers  were  at  any 
of  the  landings  they  had  to  go  out  in  a  boat,  the 
steamer  stopping  and  taking  them  on  board.  I 
was  contemplating  my  new  boat,  and  wondering 
whether  I  could  make  it  stronger  or  improve  it 
in  any  part,  when  two  men  with  trunks  came 

84 


Abraham  Lincoln 

down  to  the  shore  in  carriages,  and  looking  at 
the  different  boats,  singled  out  mine,  and  asked : 

"  'Who  owns  this?' 

**I  answered  modestly,  'I  do.' 

*'  'Will  you,'  said  one  of  them,  'take  us  and 
our  trmiks  out  to  the  steamer?' 

"  'Certainly,'  said  I.  I  was  very  glad  to  have 
a  chance  of  earning  something,  and  supposed 
that  they* would  give  me  a  couple  of  'bits.'  The 
trunks  were  put  in  my  boat,  the  passengers 
seated  themselves  on  them,  and  I  sculled  them 
out  to  the  steamer.  They  got  on  board,  and  I 
lifted  the  trunks  and  put  them  on  deck.  The 
steamer  was  moving  away  when  I  called  out : 
"  'You  have  forgotten  to  pay  me.' 

"Each  of  them  took  from  his  pocket  a  silver 
half-dollar  and  threw  it  on  the  bottom  of  my 
boat.  I  could  scarcely  believe  my  eyes  as  I 
picked  up  the  money.  You  may  think  it  was  a 
very  little  thing,  and  in  these  days  it  seems  to 
me  like  a  trifle,  but  it  was  a  most  important  inci- 
dent in  my  life.  I  could  scarcely  credit  that  I,  a 
poor  boy,  had  earned  a  dollar  in  less  than  a  day 
— that  by  honest  work  I  had  earned  a  dollar.  I 
was  a  more  hopeful  and  thoughtful  boy  from 
that  time." 

85 


The  Story  of  Young 


CHAPTER  VIII 


Moving  to  Illinois 


**  FOLLOWING  THE  RIVER '' 

Thomas  Lincoln  had  become  restless  again. 
Fourteen  years  v^as  a  long  time  for  him  to  live 
in  one  place.  Abe  was  seven  years  old  when 
they  came  over  from  Kentucky,  and  he  was  now 
nearly  twenty-one.  During  that  time  Thomas 
had  lost  his  wife,  Nancy,  and  his  only  daughter, 
who  bore  her  mother's  name.  While  the  land  he 
had  chosen  was  fertile  enough,  the  want  of  water 
had  always  been  a  sad  drawback.  The  desire  to 
try  his  fortunes  in  a  newer  country  had  taken 
possession  of  him. 

John  Hanks  had  gone  to  Illinois,  and  had 
written  back  that  everything  was  more  favor- 
able there  for  making  a  living.  Thomas  Lin- 
coln had  not  been  successful  in  Indiana.  His 
children's  prospects  seemed  to  be  against  them. 
After  working  as  a  hired  hand  on  the  surround- 
ing farms,  Abe  had  served  for  a  time  as  a  ferry- 
man, and,  working  by  the  river,  had  learned  to 

86 


Abraham  Lincoln 

build  the  boat  with  which  he  had  earned  his  first 
dollar. 

As  George  Washington  longed  to  go  to  sea, 
Abraham  Lincoln  seems  to  have  yearned  to 
**follow  the  river."  He  tried  to  hire  out  as 
deck  hand,  but  his  age  was  against  him.  He 
soon  had  a  chance  to  go  ^'down  river''  to  New 
Orleans,  with  his  friend,  Allen  Gentry,  the  son 
of  the  man  for  whom  Gentryville  was  named. 
Allen  afterward  married  Kate  Roby.  A  flatboat 
belonging  to  Allen's  father  was  loaded  with 
bacon  and  other  farm  merchandise  for  the 
southern  market.  Allen  went  in  charge  of  the 
expedition,  and  young  Lincoln  was  engaged  as 
''bow  hand."  They  started  in  April,  1828, 
There  was  nothing  to  do  but  steer  the  unwieldy 
craft  with  the  current.  The  flatboat  was  made 
to  float  down  stream  only.  It  was  to  be  broken 
up  at  New  Orleans  and  sold  for  lumber. 

The  two  young  men  from  Indiana  made  the 
trip  mthout  incident  until  they  came  to  the 
plantation  of  Madame  Duchesne,  six  miles  from 
Baton  Rouge,  where  they  moored  their  raft  for 
the  night.  There  they  heard  the  stealthy  foot- 
steps of  midnight  marauders  on  board. 

Young  Gentry  was  first  aroused.    He  sprang 

87 


The  Storv  of  Yoiins: 

up  and  found  a  cang  of  lawless  negroes  on  deck, 
evidentlT  looking  for  plimder,  and  tliinking  so 
manv  of  them  could  easilv  cow  or  handle  the  two 
white  men. 

"BrinsT  the  sruns,  Abe!''  shouted  Allen. 
"Shoot  them!''  Abraham  Lincoln  was  among 
them,  brandishing  a  club — ^thev  had  no  2:1ms. 
The  nesToes  were  frisrhtened  not  onlv  bv  the 
fierc-e,  commanding  form  of  their  tall  adversary, 
but  also  bv  his  sdant  strensrth.  The  two  white 
men  routed  the  whole  black  crew,  but  Abraham 
Linc-oln  received  a  woimd  in  the  encounter,  and 
bore  the  scar  of  it  to  his  dvins:  dav. 

The  trip  required  about  three  months,  going 
and  returning,  and  the  two  adventurers  from 
Oentrwille  came  back  in  June,  with  srood 
stories  of  their  experiences  to  tell  in  Jones' 
store, 

Xot  long  after  this  Thomas  Lincoln,  in  re- 
sponse to  an  urgent  invitation  from  John 
Hanks,  decided  to  move  to  Illinois.  It  took  a 
long  time,  after  gathering  in  the  fall  crops,  for 
Thomas  Lincoln  to  have  a  ''vandoo''  and  sell  his 
com  and  hogs.  As  for  selling  his  farm,  it  had 
never  really  belonged  to  him.  He  simply  turned 
it  over  to  !Mj".  Grentrv.  ^dio  held  a  mort^asre  on  it. 

88 


Abralia.m  L; :".",'' :" 

It  ,  ?i :  F  V  ^^^"  of;f ore  the  pioneer  wag'^^n 

got  [in(h:£  V,  ay.    1:  :      .t  familv  consisted 

of  7  .0     ;  :  Lincolr  his  wife,  Abra- 

hrj.rrj,  ar:d  ToPm  .JrAmston:  Sarah  and  Matilda 
John.ston  were  ?joth  .  L  aricL  with  their 

hTT-hnrKl'-  g  young  man  na:  .  ITgl!  and  Dennis 
li'.-  :  .  ■^^'^-'^?  *^^-  ^-^'^  r"  iLe  i>aity.  The 
woru(:ii  J  .-  v.iiii  lueu'  iiOiisehold  goods  in  a 
great  r  o        !  cait  drawn  by  two  yoke  of  oxen. 

A  TRATELrS'O  PEDDLEB 

Mf-   ::..-:  .Tor.r:^.  :v         :  .V   -  :.:  ".  —  :::ed 

tijat  f-.-  o:.         nter,  after  his  retii:., 
():.   ......    v..  .   -:.e   vouLg   r......    c.   ^.;  ::    _.    ■■:..- 

tions^'  to  peddle  along  the  road  to  Illinois.  "A 
set  of  knives  and  forks."  related  !Mr.  J  :  :, 
son  afterward,  "was  the  largefjt  item  on  the  bilL 
The  other  items  were  needles,  pins,  thread-  but- 
tons, and  other  little  domestic  necessities.  When 
the  Lincolns  reached  their  new  home,  Abraham 
wiote  back  to  my  father  stating  that  he  had 
doubled  his  money  on  his  purchases  by  selling 
thf,'m  along-  the  road.  Unfortunatelv  we  did  not 
keex)  that  letter.  ?; -t  thinking  how  highly  we 
would  prize  it  aiteiward.'' 

In  the  early  days  of  his  i)residency,  an  inter- 

89 


The  Story  of  Young 

national  problem  came  before  the  cabinet  which 
reminded  Mr.  Lincoln  of  an  experience  he  had 
on  this  journey,  so  he  told  the  several  secretaries 
this  story: 

''The  situation  just  now  reminds  me  of  a  fix 
I  got  into  some  thirty  years  ago  when  I  was 
peddling  'notions'  on  the  way  from  Indiana  to 
Illinois.  I  didn't  have  a  large  stock,  but  I 
charged  large  prices  and  I  made  money.  Per- 
haps you  don't  see  what  I  am  driving  at. 

"Just  before  we  left  Indiana  and  were  cross- 
ing into  Illinois  we  came  across  a  small  farm- 
house full  of  children.  These  ranged  in  age 
from  seventeen  years  to  seventeen  months,  and 
were  all  in  tears.  The  mother  of  the  family  was 
red-headed  and  red-faced,  and  the  whip  she  held 
in  her  right  hand  led  to  the  inference  that  she 
had  been  chastising  her  brood.  The  father  of 
the  family,  a  meek-looking,  mild-mannered,  tow- 
headed  chap,  was  standing  at  the  front  door — 
to  all  appearances  waiting  his  turn! 

"I  thought  there  wasn't  much  use  in  asking 
the  head  of  that  house  if  she  wanted  any  'no- 
tions.' She  was  too  busy.  It  was  evident  that 
an  insurrection  had  been  in  progress,  but  it  was 
pretty  well  quelled  when  I  got  there.    She  saw 

90 


'O 


Abraham  Lincoln 

me  when  I  came  up,  and  from  her  look  I  thought 
she  surmised  that  I  intended  to  interfere.  Ad- 
vancing to  the  doorway — roughly  pushing  her 
husband  aside — she  demanded  my  business. 

**  'Nothing,  ma'am,'  I  answered  as  gently  as 
possible.  'I  merely  dropped  in,  as  I  came  along, 
to  see  how  things  were  going.' 

"  'Well,  you  needn't  wait,'  she  said  in  an  irri- 
tated way;  'there's  trouble  here,  and  lots  of  it, 
too,  but  I  kin  manage  my  own  affairs  without 
the  help  of  outsiders.  This  is  jest  a  family  row, 
but  I'll  teach,  these  brats  their  places  if  I  hev  to 
lick  the  hide  off  every  one  of  them.  I  don't  do 
much  talking,  but  I  run  this  house,  an'  I  don't 
want  no  one  sneakin'  round  tryin'  to  find  out 
how  I  do  it  either.' 

"That's  the  case  here  with  us.  We  must  let 
the  other  nations  know  that  we  propose  to  settle 
our  family  row  in  our  own  way,  an'  teach  these 
brats  (the  seceding  States)  their  places,  and, 
like  the  old  woman,  we  don't  want  any  *  sneakin' 
round'  by  other  countries,  that  would  like  to  find 
out  how  we  are  going  to  do  it  either." 

"WINNIN-Q  A  dog's  GRATITUDE" 

Abe  strode  along  in  the  mud,  driving  the  four 

91       . 


The  Story  of  Young 

oxen  much  of  the  time,  for  the  houses  he  could 
visit  with  his  peddler's  pack  were  few  and  far 
between.  A  dog  belonging  to  one  of  the  family 
— an  insignificant  little  cur — fell  behind.  After 
the  oxen  had  floundered  through  the  mud,  snow 
and  ice  of  a  prairie  stream,  thej^  discovered  that 
the  animal  was  missing.  The  other  men  of  the 
party  thought  they  could  now  get  rid  of  the 
little  nuisance,  and  even  the  women  were 
anxious,  as  the  hour  was  late,  to  go  on  and  find  a 
place  to  camp  for  the  night.  To  turn  back  with 
the  clumsy  ox-team  and  lumbering  emigrant 
wagon  was  out  of  the  question. 

Abraham  gave  the  whip  to  one  of  the  other 
men  and  turned  back  to  see  if  he  could  discern 
the  dog  anywhere.  He  discovered  it  rmming  up 
and  down  on  the  other  bank  of  the  river,  in 
great  distress,  for  the  swift  current  was  filled 
with  floating  ice  and  the  poor  little  creature  was 
afraid  to  make  the  attempt  to  swim  across. 
After  whistling  in  vain  to  encourage  the  dog  to 
try  if  it  would,  the  tender-hearted  youth  went 
to  its  rescue.  Referring  to  the  incident  himself 
afterward,  he  said: 

''I  could  not  endure  the  idea  of  abandoning 
even  a  dog.  Pulling  off  shoes  and  socks,  I  waded 

92 


Abraham  Lincoln 

across  the  stream  and  triumphantly  returned 
with  the  shivering  animal  under  my  arm.  His 
frantic  leaps  of  joy  and  other  evidences  of  a 
dog's  gratitude  amply  repaid  me  for  all  the  ex- 
posure I  had  undergone." 

SPLITTING  THE  HISTORIC  RAILS 

After  two  weary  weeks  of  floundering  through 
muddy  prairies  and  jolting  over  rough  forest 
roads,  now  and  then  fording  swollen  and  dan- 
gerous streams,  the  Lincolns  were  met  near  De- 
catur, Illinois,  by  Cousin  John  Hanks,  and 
given  a  hearty  welcome.  John  had  chosen  a 
spot  not  far  from  his  own  home,  and  had  the 
logs  all  ready  to  build  a  cabin  for  the  new- 
comers. Besides  young  Abe,  with  the  strength 
of  three,  there  were  five  men  in  the  party,  so 
they  were  able  to  erect  their  first  home  in  Illinois 
without  asking  the  help  of  the  neighbors,  as  was 
customary  for  a  ''raising"  of  that  kind. 

Mcolay  and  Hay,  President  Lincoln's  private 
secretaries,  in  their  great  life  of  their  chief,  gave 
the  following  account  of  the  splitting  of  the  rails 
which  afterward  became  the  talk  of  the  civilized 
world : 

''Without  the  assistance  of  John  Hanks  he 

93 


The  Story;  of  Young 

plowed  fifteen  acres,  and  split,  from  the  tall 
walnut  trees  of  the  primeval  forest,  enough  rails 
to  surround  them  with  a  fence.  Little  did 
either  dream,  while  engaged  in  this  work,  that 
the  day  would  come  when  the  appearance  of 
John  Hanks  in  a  public  meeting  with  two  of 
these  rails  on  his  shoulder,  would  electrify  a 
State  convention,  and  kindle  throughout  the 
country  a  contagious  and  passionate  enthusiasm 
whose  results  would  reach  to  endless  genera- 
tions/' 


CHAPTER  IX 


Starting  Out  for  Himself 


HIS  FATHER  AND  HIS  ^^ FREEDOM  SUIT*' 

According  to  his  own  account,  Abe  had  made 
about  thirty  dollars  as  a  peddler,  besides  bear- 
ing the  brunt  of  the  labor  of  the  journey,  though 
there  were  four  grown  men  in  the  combined 
family.  As  he  had  passed  his  twenty-first  birth- 
day on  the  road,  he  really  had  the  right  to  claim 
these  profits  as  his  own.  His  father,  who  had, 
for  ten  years,  exacted  Abraham's  meager,  hard- 

94 


Abraham  Lincoln 

earned  wages,  should  at  least  have  given  the  boy 
a  part  of  that  thirty  dollars  for  a  * 'freedom  suit" 
of  clothes,  as  was  the  custom  then. 

But  neither  Thomas  Lincoln  nor  his  son  seems 
to  have  thought  of  such  a  thing.  Instead  of  en- 
tertaining resentment,  Abraham  stayed  by,  do- 
ing all  he  could  to  make  his  father  and  step- 
mother comfortable  before  he  left  them  alto- 
gether. Mrs.  Lincoln  had  two  daughters  and 
sons-in-law,  besides  John  Johnston,  so  Abe 
might  easily  have  excused  himself  from  looking 
after  the  welfare  of  his  parents.  Though  his 
father  had  seemed  to  favor  his  stepchildren  in 
prefei^ence  to  his  own  son,  Mrs.  Lincoln  had 
been  *'like  an  own  mother  to  him,"  and  he  never 
ceased  to  show  his  gratitude  by  being  ''like  an 
own  son  to  her." 

The  first  work  Abe  did  in  that  neighborhood 
was  to  split  a  thousand  rails  for  a  pair  of  trou- 
sers, at  the  rate  of  four  hundred  rails  per  yard 
of  "brown  ieans  dved  with  walnut  bark."  The 
young  man's  breeches  cost  him  about  four  hun- 
dred rails  more  than  they  would  if  he  had  been 
a  man  of  ordinary  height. 

But  Abraham  hovered  about,  helping  clear  a 
little  farm,  and  making  the  cabin  comfortable 

95 


The  Story  of  Young 

while  he  was  earning  his  own  ^'freedom  suit." 
He  saw  the  spring  planting  done  and  that  a 
garden  was  made  for  his  stepmother  before  he 
went  out  of  ready  reach  of  the  old  people. 

One  special  reason  Thomas  Lincoln  had  for 
leaving  Indiana  was  to  get  away  from  ''the 
milksick.''  But  the  fall  of  1830  was  a  very  bad 
season  in  Illinois  for  chills  and  fever.  The 
father  and,  in  fact,  nearly  the  whole  family  left 
at  home  suffered  so  much  from  malaria  that  they 
were  thoroughly  discouraged.  The  interior  of 
their  little  cabin  was  a  sorry  sight — Thomas  and 
his  wife  were  both  afflicted  at  once,  and  one  mar- 
ried daughter  was  almost  as  ill.  They  were  all  so 
sick  that  Thomas  Lincoln  registered  a  shaky  but 
vehement  resolve  that  as  soon  as  they  could 
travel  they  would  ''git  out  o'  thar!"  He  had 
been  so  determined  to  move  to  Illinois  that  no 
persuasion  could  induce  him  to  give  up  the  pro- 
ject, therefore  his  disappomtment  was  the  more 
keen  and  bitter. 

The  first  winter  the  Lincolns  spent  in  Illinois 
was  memorable  for  its  severity.  It  is  still 
spoken  of  in  that  region  as  "the  winter  of  the 
big  snow."  Cattle  and  sheep  froze  to  death  or 
died  of  exposure  and  starvation. 

96 


THE  FIRST  WORK  ABE  DID  IX  THAT  NEIGHBORHOOD. 


Abraham  Lincoln 

BTJILDING  THE  FLATBOAT 


)> 


Early  in  the  spring  after  *Hhe  big  snow, 
John  Hanks,  Lincoln  and  John  Johnston  met 
Denton  Offutt,  a  man  who  was  to  wield  an  influ- 
ence on  the  life  of  young  Lincoln.  Offutt  en- 
gaged the  three  to  take  a  load  of  produce  and 
other  merchandise  to  New  Orleans  to  sell.  John 
Hanks,  the  most  reliable  member  of  the  Hanks 
family,  gave  the  following  account  of  the  way 
he  managed  to  bring  Abe  and  his  stepbrother 
into  the  transaction :  ''He  wanted  me  to  go  badly 
but  I  waited  before  answering.  I  hunted  up 
Abe,  and  I  introduced  him  and  John  Johnston, 
his  stepbrother,  to  Offutt.  After  some  talk  we 
at  last  made  an  engagement  with  Offutt  at  fifty 
cents  a  day  and  sixty  dollars  to  make  the  trip  to 
New  Orleans.  Abe  and  I  came  down  the  Sanga- 
mon River  in  a  canoe  in  March,  1831,  and  landed 
at  what  is  now  called  Jamestown,  five  miles  east 
of  Springfield." 

Denton  Ofiutt  spent  so  much  time  drinking 
in  a  tavern  at  the  village  of  Springfield  that  the 
flatboat  was  not  ready  when  the  trio  arrived  to 
take  it  and  its  cargo  down  the  river.  Their  em- 
ployer met  them  on  their  arrival  with  profuse 
apologies,  and  the  three  men  were  engaged  to 

97 


The  Story  of  Young 

build  the  boat  and  load  it  up  for  the  journey. 

During  the  four  weeks  required  to  build  the 
raft,  the  men  of  that  neighborhood  became  ac- 
quainted with  young  Lincoln.  A  man  named 
John  Roll  has  given  this  description  of  Abe's 
appearance  at  that  time : 

*'He  was  a  tall,  gaunt  young  man,  dressed  in 
a  suit  of  blue  homespun,  consisting  of  a  round- 
about jacket,  waistcoat,  and  breeches  which 
came  to  within  about  three  inches  of  his  feet. 
The  latter  were  encased  in  rawhide  boots,  into 
the  tops  of  which,  most  of  the  time,  his  panta- 
loons were  stuffed.  He  wore  a  soft  felt  hat 
which  had  once  been  black,  but  now,  as  its  owner 
drvlv  remarked,  'was  sunburned  until  it  was  a 
combine  of  colors.'  " 

There  was  a  sawmill  in  Sangamontown,  and 
it  was  the  custom  for  the  ''men  folks"  of  the 
neighborhood  to  assemble  near  it  at  noon  and  in 
the  evening,  and  sit  on  a  peeled  log  which  had 
been  rolled  out  for  the  purpose.  Young  Lin- 
coln soon  joined  this  group  and  at  once  became 
a  great  favorite  because  of  his  stories  and  jokes. 
His  stories  were  so  fumiy  that  "whenever  he'd 
end  'em  up  in  his  unexpected  way  the  boys  on 
the  log  would  whoop  and  roll  off."    In  this  way 

98 


Abraham  Lincoln 

the  log  was  polished  smooth  as  glass,  and  came 
to  be  known  in  the  neighborhood  as  '* Abe's 
log/' 

A  traveling  juggler  came  one  day  while  the 
boat  was  building  and  gave  an  exhibition  in  the 
house  of  one  of  the  neighbors.  This  magician 
asked  for  Abe's  hat  to  cook  eggs  in.  Lincoln 
hesitated,  but  gave  this  explanation  for  his  de- 
lay: ^*It  was  out  of  respect  for  the  eggs — ^not 
care  for  my  hat  I" 

ABE  LINCOLN  SAVES  THREE  LIVES 

While  they  were  at  work  on  the  flatboat  the 
humorous  young  stranger  from  Indiana  became 
the  hero  of  a  thrilling  adventure,  described  as 
follows  by  John  Roll,  who  was  an  eye  witness 
to  the  whole  scene : 

''It  was  the  spring  following  'the  winter  of 
the  deep  snow. '  Walter  Carman,  John  Seamon, 
myself,  and  at  times  others  of  the  Carman  boys, 
had  helped  Abe  in  building  the  boat,  and  when 
we  had  finished  we  went  to  work  to  make  a  dug- 
out, or  canoe,  to  be  used  as  a  small  boat  with  the 
flat.  We  found  a  suitable  log  about  an  eighth 
of  a  mile  up  the  river,  and  with  our  axes  went  to 
work  under  Lincoln's  direction.    The  river  was 

99 

7 — Lincoln. 


THe  Story  of  Young 

very  high,  fairly  'booming.'  After  the  dug-out 
was  ready  to  launch  we  took  it  to  the  edge  of  the 
water,  and  made  ready  to  'let  her  go,'  when 
Walter  Carman  and  John  Seamon  jumped  in  as 
the  boat  struck  the  water,  each  one  anxious  to 
be  the  first  to  get  a  ride.  As  they  shot  out  from 
the  shore  they  found  they  were  miable  to  make 
any  headway  against  the  strong  current.  Car- 
man had  the  paddle,  and  Seamon  was  in  the 
stern  of  the  boat.  Lincoln  shouted  to  them  to 
head  up-stream  and  'work  back  to  shore,'  but 
they  found  themselves  powerless  against  the 
stream.  At  last  they  began  to  pull  for  the  wreck 
of  an  old  flatboat,  the  first  ever  built  on  the  San- 
gamon, which  had  sunk  and  gone  to  pieces,  leav- 
ing one  of  the  stanchions  sticking  above  the 
water.  Just  as  they  reached  it  Seamon  made  a 
grab,  and  caught  hold  of  the  stanchion,  when  the 
canoe  capsized,  leaving  Seamon  clinging  to  the 
old  timber  and  throwing  Carman  into  the 
stream.  It  carried  him  down  with  the  speed  of 
a  mill-race.  Lincoln,  raised  his  voice  above  the 
roar  of  the  flood,  and  yelled  to  Carman  to  swim 
for  an  elm  tree  which  stood  almost  in  the  chan- 
nel, which  the  action  of  the  water  had  changed. 
"Carman,  being  a  good  swimmer,  succeeded 

100 


Abraham  Lincoln 

in  catching  a  branch,  and  pulled  himself  up  out 
of  the  water,  which  was  very  cold,  and  had  al- 
most chilled  him  to  death ;  and  there  he  sat,  shiv- 
ering and  chattering  in  the  tree. 

''Lincoln,  seeing  Carman  safe,  called  out  to 
Seamon  to  let  go  the  stanchion  and  swim  for  the 
tree.  With  some  hesitation  he  obeyed,  and 
struck  out,  while  Lincoln  cheered  and  directed 
him  from  the  bank.  As  Seamon  neared  the  tree 
he  made  one  grab  for  a  branch,  and,  missing  it, 
went  under  the  water.  Another  desperate  lunge 
was  successful,  and  he  climbed  up  beside  Car- 
man. 

**  Things  were  pretty  exciting  now,  for  there 
were  two  men  in  the  tree,  and  the  boat  gone.  It 
was  a  cold,  raw  April  day,  and  there  was  great 
danger  of  the  men  becoming  benumbed  and  fall- 
ing back  into  the  water.  Lincoln  called  out  to 
them  to  keep  their  spirits  up  and  he  would  save 
them. 

''The  village  had  been  alarmed  by  this  time, 
and  many  people  had  come  down  to  the  bank. 
Lincoln  procured  a  rope  and  tied  it  to  a  log.  He 
called  all  hands  to  come  and  help  roll  the  log  into 
the  water,  and,  after  this  had  been  done,  he,  with 
the  assistance  of  several  others,  towed  it  some 

101 


The  Story  of  Young 

distance  up  the  stream.  A  daring  young  fellow 
bv  the  name  of  'Jim'  Dorell  then  took  his  seat  on 
the  end  of  the  log,  and  it  was  pushed  out  into  the 
current,  mth  the  expectation  that  it  would  be 
carried  down  stream  against  the  tree  where  Sea- 
men and  Carman  were. 

*'The  log  was  well  directed,  and  went  straight 
to  the  tree;  but  Jim,  in  his  impatience  to  help 
his  friends,  fell  a  victim  to  his  good  intentions. 
Making  a  frantic  grab  at  a  branch,  he  raised 
himself  off  the  log,  which  was  swept  from  under 
him  by  the  raging  waters  and  he  soon  joined  the 
other  victims  upon  their  forlorn  perch. 

*'The  excitement  on  the  shore  increased,  and 
almost  the  whole  population  of  the  village  gath- 
ered on  the  river  bank.  Lincohi  had  the  log 
pulled  up  the  stream,  and,  securing  another 
piece  of  rope,  called  to  the  men  in  the  tree  to 
catch  it  if  they  could  when  he  should  reach  the 
tree.  He  then  straddled  the  log  himself,  and 
gave  the  word  to  push  out  into  the  stream. 
When  he  dashed  into  the  tree  he  threw  the  rope 
over  the  stump  of  a  broken  limb,  and  let  it  play 
mitil  he  broke  the  speed  of  the  log,  and  gradu- 
ally drew  it  back  to  the  tree,  holding  it  there 
until  the  three  now  nearly  frozen  men  had 

102 


Abraham  Lincoln 

climbed  down  and  seated  themselves  astride. 
He  then  gave  orders  to  the  people  on  shore  to 
hold  fast  to  the  end  of  the  rope  which  was  tied 
to  the  log,  and  leaving  his  rope  in  the  tree  he 
turned  the  log  adrift.  The  force  of  the  current, 
acting  against  the  taut  rope,  swung  the  log 
around  against  the  bank  and  all  'on  board'  were 
saved. 

*'The  excited  people  who  had  watched  the 
dangerous  expedition  mth  alternate  hope  and 
fear,  now  broke  into  cheers  for  Abe  Lincoln, 
and  praises  for  his  brave  act.  This  adventure 
made  quite  a  hero  of  him  along  the  Sangamon, 
and  the  people  never  tired  of  telling  of  the  ex- 
ploit." 

*'down  the  rh^r'' 

The  launching  of  that  flatboat  was  made  a 
feast-day  in  the  neighborhood.  Denton  Of£utt, 
its  proprietor,  was  invited  to  break  away  from 
the  ^'Buckhorn"  tavern  at  Springfield  to  wit- 
ness the  ceremonies,  which,  of  course,  took  a  po- 
litical turn.  There  was  much  speech-making, 
but  Andrew  Jackson  and  the  Whig  leaders  were 
equally  praised. 

The  boat  had  been  loaded  vdth  pork  in  barrels, 
corn,  and  hogs,  and  it  slid  into  the  Sangamon 

103 


The  Story  of  Young 

River,  then  overflowing  with  the  spring  ''fresh," 
with  a  big  splash. 

The  three  sturdy  navigators,  accompanied  by 
Offutt  himself,  floated  away  in  triumph  from 
the  waving  crowd  on  the  bank. 

The  first  incident  in  the  voyage  occurred  the 
19th  of  April,  at  Rutledge's  mill  dam  at  New 
Salem,  where  the  boat  stranded  and  "hung" 
there  a  day  and  a  night. 

HOW  ABE  GOT  THE  FLATBOAT  OVER  THE  DAM 

New  Salem  was  destined  to  fill  an  important 
place  in  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  One  who 
became  well  acquainted  with  him  described  him 
as  the  New  Salemites  first  saw  him,  "wading 
round  on  Rutledge's  dam  with  his  trousers 
rolled  up  nine  feet,  more  or  less." 

One  of  the  crew  gave  this  account  of  their 
mode  of  operations  to  get  the  stranded  raft  over 
the  dam: 

"We  unloaded  the  boat — that  is,  we  trans- 
ferred the  goods  from  our  boat  to  a  borrovv^ed 
one.  We  then  rolled  the  barrels  forward;  Lin- 
coln bored  a  hole  in  the  end  (projecting)  over 
the  dam ;  the  water  which  had  leaked  in  ran  out 
then  and  we  slid  over." 

104 


Abraham  Lincoln 

Offutt^s  enthusiasm  over  Abe's  simple  method 
of  surmounting  this  great  obstacle  was  bound- 
less. A  crowd  had  gathered  on  a  hillside  to 
watch  Lincoln's  operations. 

AN  IMPROBABLE  PROPHECY 

For  the  novelty  of  the  thing,  John  Hanks 
claimed  to  have  taken  young  Lincoln  to  a 
*  ^voodoo"  negress.  She  is  said  to  have  become 
excited  in  reading  the  future  of  the  tall,  thin 
young  man,  saying  to  him,  ^^You  will  be  Presi- 
dent, and  all  the  negroes  will  be  free.''  This 
story  probably  originated  long  afterward,  when 
the  strange  prophecy  had  already  come  true — 
though  fortune  tellers  often  inform  young  men 
who  come  to  them  that  they  will  be  Presidents 
some  day.  That  such  a  woman  could  read  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  in  that  young 
man's  future  is  not  at  all  likely. 

Another  story  is  told  of  Abraham  Lincoln's 
second  visit  to  New  Orleans  that  is  more  prob- 
able, but  even  this  is  not  certain  to  have  hap- 
pened exactly  as  related.  The  young  northerner 
doubtless  saw  negroes  in  chains,  and  his  spirit, 
like  that  of  his  father  and  mother,  rebelled 
against  this  inhumanity.    There  is  little  doubt 

105 


The  Story  of  Young 

that  in  such  sights,  as  one  of  his  companions  re- 
lated, '^  Slavery  ran  the  iron  into  him  then  and 
there/* 

"i'll  hit  it  hard!" 

But  the  story  goes  that  the  three  young  fellows 
— Hanks,  Johnston  and  Lincoln — went  wander- 
ing about  the  city,  and  passed  a  slave  market, 
where  a  comely  young  mulatto  girl  was  offered  to 
the  highest  bidder.  They  saw  prospective  pur- 
chasers examine  the  weeping  girl's  teeth,  pinch 
her  flesh  and  pull  her  about  as  they  would  a  cow 
or  a  horse.  The  whole  scene  was  so  revolting  that 
Lincoln  recoiled  from  it  with  horror  and  hatred, 
saying  to  his  two  companions,  '^Boys,  let's  get 
away  from  this.  If  ever  I  get  a  chance  to  hit  that 
thing" — meaning  slavery — '^I'll  hit  it  hard!'' 

In  June  the  four  men  took  passage  up  the  river 
on  a  steamboat  for  the  return  trip.  At  St.  Louis, 
Offutt  got  off  to  purchase  stock  for  a  store  he 
proposed  to  open  in  New  Salem,  where  he 
planned  to  place  young  Lincoln  in  charge. 

WEESTLING  WITH  THE  COUNTY  CHAMPION- 

The  other  three  started  on  foot  to  reach  their 
several  homes  in  Illinois.  Abe  improved  the  op- 
portunity to  visit  his  father's  family  in  Coles 

106 


Abraham  Lincoln 

County,  where  Thomas  Lincoln  had  removed  as 
soon  as  he  was  able  to  leave  their  first  Illinois 
home  near  Decatur. 

Abe's  reputation  as  a  wrestler  had  preceded 
him  and  the  Coles  County  Champion,  Daniel 
Needham,  came  and  challenged  the  tall  visitor 
to  a  friendly  contest.  Young  Lincoln  laugh- 
ingly accepted  and  threw  Needham  twice.  The 
crestfallen  wrestler's  pride  was  deeply  hurt,  and 
he  found  it  hard  to  give  up  beaten. 

''Lincoln,"  said  he,  ''you  have  thrown  me 
twice,  but  you  can't  whip  me." 

Abe  laughed  again  and  replied: 

"Needham,  are  you  satisfied  that  I  can  throw 
you?  If  you  are  not,  and  must  be  convinced 
through  a  thrashing,  I  will  do  that,  too— for 
your  sake!" 

CHAPTER  X 


Clerking  and  Working 


HE  COULD  "make  A  FEW  RABBIT  TRACKS" 

It  was  in  August,  1831,  that  Abraham  Lin- 
coln appeared  in  the  village  of  New  Salem,  Illi- 

107 


The  Story  of  Young 

nois.  Neither  Denton  Offutt  nor  his  merchan- 
dise had  arrived  as  promised.  While  paying 
the  penalty  of  the  punctual  man — by  waiting  for 
the  tardy  one — ^he  seemed  to  the  villagers  to  be 
loafing.  But  Abraham  Lincoln  was  no  loafer. 
He  always  foimd  something  useful  and  helpful 
to  do.  This  time  there  was  a  local  election,  and 
one  of  the  clerks  had  not  appeared  to  perform 
his  duties.  A  New  Salem  woman  wrote  of  Lin- 
coln's first  act  in  the  village: 

^'My  father,  Mentor  Graham,  was  on  that  day, 
as  usual,  appointed  to  be  a  clerk,  and  Mr.  Mc- 
Namee,  who  was  to  be  the  other,  was  sick  and 
failed  to  come.  They  were  looking  around  for 
a  man  to  fill  his  place  when  my  father  noticed 
Mr.  Lincoln  and  asked  if  he  could  write.  He 
answered  that  he  could  *make  a  few  rabbit 
tracks.' '' 

PILOTING  A  FAMILY  FLATBOAT 

A  few  days  after  the  election  the  young 
stranger,  who  had  become  known  by  this  time 
as  the  hero  of  the  flatboat  on  Rutledge's  dam 
four  months  before,  found  employment  as  a 
pilot.  A  citizen.  Dr.  Nelson,  was  about  to  emi- 
grate to  Texas.    The  easiest  and  best  mode  of 

108 


"LINCOLN,"    SAID    HE,    "YOU    HAVL    TllKoWX    .\iJ-;    TWICE, 
BUT   YOU   CAN'T   WHIP   ME." 


Abraham  Lincoln 

travel  in  those  days  was  by  flatboat  down  the 
river.  He  had  loaded  all  his  household  goods 
and  movable  property  on  his  ''private  convey- 
ance'' and  w^as  looking  about  for  a  ''driver." 
Young  Lincoln,  still  waiting,  unemployed,  of- 
fered his  services  and  took  the  Nelson  family 
down  the  Sangamon  River — a  more  difficult 
task  in  August  than  in  April,  when  the  water 
was  high  on  account  of  the  spring  rains.  But 
the  yomig  pilot  proceeded  cautiously  down  the 
shallow  stream,  and  reached  Beardstown,  on  the 
Illinois  River,  where  he  was  "discharged"  and 
walked  back  over  the  hills  to  New  Salem. 

ANNOYED  BY  THE  HIGH  PRAISES  OF  HIS  EMPLOYER 

Denton  Offutt  and  his  stock  for  the  store  ar- 
rived at  last,  and  Lincoln  soon  had  a  little  store 
opened  for  business.  A  comitry  store  seemed 
too  small  for  a  clerk  of  such  astounding  abilities, 
so  the  too  enthusiastic  employer  bought  Cam- 
eron's mill  with  the  dam  on  which  Lincoln  had 
already  distinguished  himself,  and  made  the 
clerk  manager  of  the  whole  business. 

This  was  not  enough.  Offutt  sounded  the 
praises  of  the  new  clerk  to  all  comers.  He 
claimed  that  Abraham  Lincoln  "knew  more  than 

109 


The  Story  of  Young 

any  man  in  the  United  States. '^  As  Mr.  Offutt 
had  never  shown  that  he  knew  enough  himself 
to  prove  this  statement,  the  neighbors  began  to 
resent  such  rash  claims.  In  addition,  Offutt 
boasted  that  Abe  could  *'beat  the  county'^  run- 
ning, jumping  and  wrestling.  Here  was  some- 
thing the  new  clerk  could  prove,  if  true,  so  his 
employer's  statement  was  promptly  challenged. 

When  a  strange  man  came  to  the  village  to 
live,  even  though  no  one  boasted  of  his  prowess, 
he  was  likely  to  suffer  at  the  hands  of  the  * 
rougher  element  of  the  place.  It  was  a  sort  of 
rude  initiation  into  their  society.  These  cere- 
monies were  conducted  with  a  savage  sense  of 
humor  by  a  gang  of  rowdies  known  as  the 
*' Clary's  Grove  Boys,"  of  whom  the  ^^best 
fighter''  was  Jack  Armstrong. 

Sometimes  'Hhe  Boys"  nailed  up  a  stranger 
in  a  hogshead  and  it  was  rolled  down  hill.  Some- 
times he  was  ingeniously  insulted,  or  made  to 
fight  in  self-defense,  and  beaten  black  and  blue 
by  the  whole  gang.  They  seemed  not  to  be 
hampered  by  delicate  notions  of  fair  play  in 
their  actions  toward  a  stranger.  They  *^  picked 
on  him,"  as  chickens,  dogs  and  wolves  do  upon  a 
newcomer  among  them. 

110 


Abraham  Lincoln 

So  when  young  Lincoln  heard  his  employer 
bragging  about  his  brain  and  brawn  he  was  suf- 
ficiently acquainted  with  backwoods  nature  to 
know  that  it  boded  no  good  to  him.  Even  then 
*^he  knew  how  to  bide  his  time/'  and  turned  it  to 
good  account,  for  he  had  a  good  chance,  shortly 
to  show  the  metal  that  was  in  him. 

^^The  Boys''  called  and  began  to  banter  with 
the  long-legged  clerk  in  the  new  store.  This  led 
to  a  challenge  and  comparison  of  strength  and 
prowess  between  young  Lincoln  and  Jack  Arm- 
strong. Abe  accepted  the  gauntlet  with  an  alac- 
rity that  pleased  the  crowd,  especially  the  chief 
of  the  bully  "Boys,"  who  expected  an  easy  vic- 
tory. But  Jack  was  surprised  to  find  that  the 
stranger  was  his  match — ^yes,  more  than  his 
match.  Others  of  '^the  Boys"  saw  this,  also,  and 
began  to  interfere  by  tripping  Abe  and  trying  to 
help  their  champion  by  unfair  means. 

This  made  young  Lincoln  angry.  Putting 
forth  all  his  strength,  he  seized  Armstrong  by 
the  throat  and  "nearly  choked  the  exuberant 
life  out  of  him."  When  "the  Boys"  saw  the 
stranger  shaking  their  "best  fighter"  as  if  he 
were  a  mere  child,  their  enmity  gave  place  to 
admiration;  and  when  Abe  had  thrown  Jack 

111 


The  Story  of  Yoiuig 

Armstrong  upon  the  ground,  in  his  wrath,  as  a 
lion  would  throw  a  dog  that  had  been  set  upon 
him,  and  while  the  strong  stranger  stood  there, 
with  his  back  to  the  wall,  challenging  the  whole 
gang,  with  deep-set  eyes  blazing  mth  indigna- 
tion, they  acknowledged  him  as  their  conqueror, 
and  declared  that  ^*Abe  Lincoln  is  the  cleverest 
fellow  that  ever  broke  into  the  settlement.'' 

The  initiation  was  over,  and  yomig  Lincoln's 
triumph  complete.  From  that  day  *Hhe  Clary's 
Grrove  Boys"  were  his  stamich  supporters  and 
defenders,  and  his  employer  was  allowed  to  go 
on  bragging  about  his  wonderful  clerk  without 
hindrance. 

GmN"G  ANOTHER  BULLY  **A  DOSE  OF  SMARTT^T^^ED" 

A  bumptious  stranger  came  into  the  store  one 
day  and  tried  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  the  tall 
clerk.  To  this  end  he  used  language  offensive  to 
several  women  who  were  there  trading.  Lin- 
coln quietly  asked  the  fellow  to  desist  as  there 
were  ^'ladies  present."  The  bully  considered 
this  an  admission  that  the  clerk  was  afraid  of 
him,  so  he  began  to  swear  and  use  more  offensive 
language  than  before.  As  this  was  too  much  for 
Abraham's  patience,  he  whispered  to  the  fellow 

112 


Abraham  Lincoln 

that  if  he  would  keep  quiet  till  the  ladies  went 
out,  he  (Lincoln)  would  go  and  ^'have  it  out.'' 

After  the  women  went,  the  man  became  vio- 
lently abusive.  Young  Lincoln  calmly  went  out- 
side with  him,  saying:  ''I  see  you  must  be 
whipped  and  I  suppose  I  will  have  to  do  it." 
With  this  he  seized  the  insolent  fellow  and  made 
short  work  of  him.  Throwing  the  man  on  the 
ground,  Lincoln  sat  on  him,  and,  with  his  long 
arms,  gathered  a  handful  of  '^smartweed"  which 
grew  around  them.  He  then  rubbed  it  into  the 
bully's  eyes  until  he  roared  with  pain.  An  ob- 
server of  this  incident  said  afterward: 

''Lincoln  did  all  this  without  a  particle  of 
anger,  and  when  the  job  was  finished  he  went 
immediately  for  water,  washed  his  victim's  face 
and  did  everything  he  could  to  alleviate  the 
man's  distress.  The  upshot  of  the  matter  was 
that  the  fellow  became  his  life-long  friend,  and 
was  a  better  man  from  that  day." 

HOW  HE  MADE  HIS  FELLOW  CLERK  GIVE  UP 

GAMBLING 

Lincoln's  morals  were  unusually  good  for  that 
time  and  place.  Smoking,  chewing,  drinking, 
swearing  and  gambling  were  almost  universal 

113 


The  Story;  of  Young 

among  his  associates.  Offutt  hired  a  young 
man,  William  G.  Greene,  after  the  purchase  of 
the  mill.  This  assistant  first  told  many  of  the 
stories,  now  so  well  known,  concerning  Abe  at 
this  period  of  his  career : 

Young  Greene  was,  like  most  of  the  young 
men  in  New  Salem,  addicted  to  petty  gambling. 
He  once  related  how  Lincoln  induced  him  to  quit 
the  habit.    Abe  said  to  him  one  day : 

''Billy,  you  ought  to  stop  gambling  with 
Estep.'^    Billy  made  a  lame  excuse: 

"I'm  ninety  cents  behind,  and  I  can't  quit 
until  I  win  it  back." 

"I'll  help  you  get  that  back,"  urged  Lincoln, 
"if  you'll  promise  me  you  won't  gamble  any 
more." 

The  youth  reflected  a  moment  and  made  the 
required  promise.    Lincoln  continued: 

"Llere  are  some  good  hats,  and  you  need  a 
new  one.  Now,  when  Estep  comes  again,  you 
draw  him  on  by  degrees,  and  finally  bet  him  one 
of  these  hats  that  I  can  lift  a  forty-gallon  barrel 
of  whisky  and  take  a  drink  out  of  the  bung- 
hole." 

Billy  agreed,  and  the  two  clerks  chuckled  as 
they  fixed  the  barrel  so  that  the  bunghole  would 

114 


Abraham  Lincoln 

come  in  the  right  place  to  win  the  bet,  though 
the  thing  seemed  impossible  to  Greene  himself. 
Estep  appeared  in  due  time,  and  after  long  par- 
leying and  bantering  the  wager  was  laid.  Lin- 
coln then  squatted  before  the  barrel,  lifted  one 
end  up  on  one  knee,  then  raised  the  other  end 
on  to  the  other  knee,  bent  over,  and  by  a  Hercu- 
lean effort,  actually  succeeded  in  taking  a  drink 
from  the  bunghole — though  he  spat  it  out  imme- 
diately. ''That  was  the  only  time,"  said  Greene 
long  afterward,  ''that  I  ever  saw  Abraham  Lin- 
coln take  a  drink  of  liquor  of  any  kind."  This 
was  the  more  remarkable,  as  whisky  was  served 
on  all  occasions — even  passed  around  with  re- 
freshments at  religious  meetings,  according  to 
Mrs.  Josiah  Crawford,  the  woman  for  whom  Abe 
and  Nancy  had  worked  as  hired  help.  Much  as 
Abe  disapproved  of  drinking,  he  considered  that 
"the  end  justified  the  means"  employed  to  break 
his  fellow  clerk  of  the  gambling  habit. 

HOW  HE  WON"  THE  NAME  OF  "HONI^ST  ABE" 

Abe  Lincoln  could  not  endure  the  thought  of 
cheating  any  one,  even  though  it  had  been  done 
unintentionally.  One  day  a  woman  bought  a 
bill  of  goods  in  Offutt's  store  amounting  to  some- 

115 

8 — Lincoln, 


The  Story  of  Young 

thing  over  two  dollars.  She  paid  Abe  the  money 
and  went  away  satisfied.  That  night,  on  going 
over  the  sales  of  the  day,  Abe  found  that  he  had 
charged  the  woman  six  and  one-fourth  cents  too 
much.  After  closing  the  store,  though  it  was 
late,  he  could  not  go  home  to  supper  or  to  bed 
till  he  had  restored  that  sixpence  to  its  proper 
owner.  She  lived  more  than  two  miles  away,  but 
that  did  not  matter  to  Abe  Lincoln.  When  he 
had  returned  the  money  to  the  astonished  woman 
he  walked  back  to  the  village  with  a  long 
step  and  a  light  heart,  content  with  doing  his 
duty. 

Another  evening,  as  he  was  closing  the  store,  a 
woman  came  in  for  a  half-pound  of  tea.  He 
weighed  it  out  for  her  and  took  the  pay.  But 
early  next  morning,  when  he  came  to  ''open  up," 
he  found  the  four-ounce  weight  instead  of  the 
eight-ounce  on  the  scales,  and  inferred  that  he 
had  given  that  woman  only  half  as  much  tea  as 
he  had  taken  the  money  for.  Of  course,  the 
woman  would  never  know  the  difference,  and  it 
meant  walking  several  miles  and  back,  but  the 
honest  clerk  weighed  out  another  quarter  pound 
of  tea,  locked  the  store  and  took  that  long  walk 
before  breakfast.    As  a  ''constitutianal'^  it  must 

116 


Abraham  Lincoln 

have  been  a  benefit  to  his  health,  for  it  satisfied 
his  sensitive  conscience  and  soothed  his  tender 
heart  to  **make  good"  in  that  way. 

Drink  and  misdirected  enthusiasm  interfered 
with  Denton  Offutt's  success.  After  about  a 
year  in  New  Salem  he  "busted  up, "  as  the  neigh- 
bors expressed  it,  and  left  his  creditors  in  the 
lurch.  Among  them  was  the  clerk  he  had 
boasted  so  much  about.  For  a  short  time  Abe 
Lincoln  needed  a  home,  and  found  a  hearty  wel- 
come with  Jack  Armstrong,  the  best  fighter  of 
Clary's  Grovel 

J.  G.  Holland  wrote,  in  his  "Life  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,"  of  the  young  man's  progress  during 
his  first  year  in  New  Salem : 

"The  year  that  Lincoln  was  in  Denton  Offutt's 
store  was  one  of  great  advance.  He  had  made 
new  and  valuable  acquaintances,  read  many 
books,  won  multitudes  of  friends,  and  become 
ready  for  a  step  further  in  advance.  Those  who 
could  appreciate  brains  respected  him,  and  those 
whose  ideas  of  a  man  related  to  his  muscles  were 
devoted  to  him.  It  was  while  he  was  performing 
the  work  of  the  store  that  he  acquired  the  nick- 
name, ^Honest  Abe' — a  characterization  that  he 
never  dishonored,  an  abbreviation  that  he  never 

117 


The  Story  of  Young 

outgrew.  He  was  everybody's  friend,  the  best- 
natured,  the  most  sensible,  the  best-informed,  the 
most  modest  and  unassuming,  the  kindest, 
gentlest,  roughest,  strongest,  best  fellow  in  all 
New  Salem  and  the  region  round  about." 


CHAPTER  XI 


Politics,  War,  Stoke  Keeping  and  Studying 

Law 


studying  grammar  first 

By  "a  step  still  further  in  advance"  Dr.  Hol- 
land must  have  meant  the  young  clerk's  going 
into  politics.  He  had  made  many  friends  in  New 
Salem,  and  they  reflected  back  his  good-will  by 
urging  him  to  run  for  the  State  Legislature. 
Before  doing  this  he  consulted  Mentor  Graham, 
the  village  schoolmaster,  with  whom  he  had 
worked  as  election  clerk  when  he  first  came  to 
the  place.  Abe  could  read,  write  and  cipher, 
but  he  felt  that  if  he  should  succeed  in  poli- 
tics, he  would  disgrace  his  office  and  himself 

118 


Abraham  Lincoln 

by  not  speaking  and  wiiting  English  correctly. 

The  schoolmaster  advised:  "If  you  expect  to 
go  before  the  public  in  any  capacity,  I  think  the 
best  thing  you  can  do  is  to  study  English  gram- 
mar.'' 

"If  I  had  a  grammar  I  would  commence  now," 
sighed  Abe. 

Mr.  Graham  thought  one  could  be  found  at 
Vaner's,  only  six  miles  away.  So  Abe  got  up 
and  started  for  it  as  fast  as  he  could  stride.  In 
an  incredibly  sort  time  he  returned  with  a  copy 
of  Kirldiam's  Grammar,  and  set  to  work  upon  it 
at  once.  Sometimes  he  would  steal  away  into 
the  woods,  where  he  could  study  "out  loud"  if  he 
desired.  He  kept  up  his  old  habit  of  sitting  up 
nights  to  read,  and  as  lights  were  expensive,  the 
village  cooper  allowed  him  to  stay  in  his  shop, 
where  he  burned  the  shavings  and  studied  by  the 
blaze  as  he  had  done  in  Indiana,  after  every  one 
else  had  gone  to  bed.  So  it  was  not  long  before 
young  Lincoln,  with  the  aid  of  Schoolmaster 
Graham,  had  mastered  the  principles  of  English 
grammar,  and  felt  himself  better  equipped  to 
enter  politics  and  public  life.  Some  of  his  rivals, 
however,  did  not  trouble  themselves  about  speak- 
ing and  writing  correctly. 

119 


The  Story  of  Youiig 

GOIN'G  INTO  POLITICS 

James  Rutledge,  a  "substantiar'  citizen,  and 
the  former  owner  of  Rutledge 's  mill  and  dam, 
was  the  president  of  the  New  Salem  debating 
club.  Young  Lincoln  joined  this  society,  and 
when  he  first  rose  to  speak,  everybody  began  to 
smile  in  anticipation  of  a  fmniy  story,  but  Abe 
proceeded  to  discuss  the  question  before  the 
house  in  very  good  form.  He  was  awkward  in  his 
movements  and  gestures  at  first,  and  amused 
those  present  by  thrusting  his  unwieldy  hands 
deep  into  his  pockets,  but  his  arguments  were  so 
well-put  and  forcible  that  all  who  heard  him  were 
astonished. 

Mr.  Rutledge,  that  night  after  Abe's  maiden 
effort  at  the  lyceum,  told  his  wife: 

*' There  is  more  in  Abe  Lincoln's  head  than 
mere  wit  and  fun.  He  is  already  a  fine  speaker. 
All  he  needs  is  culture  to  fit  him  for  a  high  posi- 
tion in  public  life. " 

But  there  were  occasions  enough  where  some- 
thing besides  culture  was  required.  A  man 
who  was  present  and  heard  Lincoln's  first  real 
stump  speech  describes  his  appearance  and  ac- 
tions in  the  following  picturesque  language : 

**He  wore  a  mixed  jean  coat,  clawhammer 

120 


Abraham  Lincoln 

style,  short  in  the  sleeves  and  bob-tail — in  fact, 
it  was  so  short  in  the  tail  that  he  could  not  sit 
upon  it — flax  and  tow  linen  pantaloons,  and  a 
straw  hat.  I  think  he  wore  a  vest,  but  do  not  re- 
member how  it  looked.  He  wore  pot  metal  (top) 
boots. 

''His  maiden  effort  on  the  stump  was  a  speech 
on  the  occasion  of  a  public  sale  at  Pappyville,  a 
village  eleven  miles  from  Springfield.  After  the 
sale  was  over  and  speechmaking  had  begun,  a 
fight — a  'general  fight'  as  one  of  the  bystand- 
ers relates — ensued,  and  Lincoln,  noticing  one 
of  his  friends  about  to  succumb  to  the  attack  of 
an  infuriated  ruffian,  interposed  to  prevent  it. 
He  did  so  most  effectually.  Hastily  descending 
from  the  rude  platform,  he  edged  his  way 
through  the  crowd,  and  seizing  the  bully  by  the 
neck  and  the  seat  of  his  trousers,  threw  him  by 
means  of  his  great  strength  and  long  arms,  as 
one  witness  stoutly  insists,  'twelve  feet  away.' 
Returning  to  the  stand,  and  throwing  aside  his 
hat,  he'  inaugurated  his  campaign  with  the  fol- 
lowing brief  and  juicy  declaration: 

" 'Fellow- Citizens:  I  presume  you  all  know 
who  I  am.  I  am  humble  Abraham  Lincoln.  I 
have  been  solicited  by  many  friends  to  become  a 

121 


The  Story  of  Young 

candidate  for  the  Legislature.  My  politics  are 
** short  and  sweet"  like  the  old  woman's  dance. 
I  am  in  favor  of  national  bank.  I  am  in  favor 
of  the  internal  improvement  system,  and  a  high 
protective  tariff.  These  are  my  sentiments  and 
political  principles.  If  elected,  I  shall  be  thank- 
ful; if  not,  it  will  be  all  the  same.'  " 

The  only  requirement  for  a  candidate  for  the 
Illinois  Legislature  in  1832  was  that  he  should 
amiounce  his  ^'sentiments."  This  Lincoln  did, 
according  to  custom,  in  a  circular  of  about  two 
thousand  words,  rehearsing  his  experiences  on 
the  Sangamon  River  and  in  the  community  of 
New  Salem.  For  a  youth  who  had  just  turned 
twenty-three,  who  had  never  been  to  school  a 
year  in  his  life,  who  had  no  political  training, 
and  had  never  made  a  political  speech,  it  was  a 
bold  and  dignified  document,  closing  as  follows : 

*^  Considering  the  great  degree  of  modesty 
which  should  always  attend  youth,  it  is  probable 
I  have  already  been  presuming  more  than  be- 
comes me.  However,  upon  the  subjects  of  which 
I  have  treated,  I  have  spoken  as  I  have  thought. 
I  may  be  wrong  in  regard  to  any  or  all  of  them, 
but,  holding  it  a  sound  maxim  that  it  is  better 
only  sometimes  to  be  right  than  at  all  times  to  be 

122 


Abraham  Lincoln 

wrong,  so  soon  as  I  discover  my  opinions  to  be 
erroneous,  I  sliall  be  ready  to  renounce  them. 

*' Every  man  is  said  to  have  his  peculiar  ambi- 
tion. Wliether  this  is  true  or  not,  I  can  say  for 
one,  that  I  have  no  other  so  great  as  that  of  being 
truly  esteemed  of  my  fellow-men  by  rendering 
myself  worthy  of  their  esteem.  How  far  I  shall 
succeed  in  gratifying  this  ambition  is  yet  to  be 
developed.  I  am  young  and  miknown  to  many 
of  you.  I  was  born,  and  have  ever  remained  in 
the  most  humble  walks  of  life.  I  have  no  wealthy 
or  popular  relations  or  friends  to  recommend 
me.  My  case  is  thrown  exclusively  upon  the  in- 
dependent voters  of  the  country ;  and,  if  elected, 
they  will  have  conferred  a  favor  on  me  for  which 
I  shall  be  unremitting  in  my  labors  to  compen- 
sate. But  if  the  good  people  in  their  wisdom 
shall  see  fit  to  keep  me  in  the  background,  I  have 
been  too  familiar  with  disappointments  to  be 
very  much  chagrined.'' 

"captain  LINCOLN"" 

Lincoln  had  hardly  launched  in  his  first  po- 
litical venture  when,  in  April,  1832,  a  messenger 
arrived  in  New  Salem  with  the  announcement 
from  Governor  Reynolds,  of  Illinois,  that  the 

123 


The  Story  of  Yoiuig 

Sacs  and  other  hostile  tribes,  led  by  Black  Hawk, 
had  invaded  the  northern  part  of  the  State, 
spreading  terror  among  the  white  settlers  in  that 
region.  The  governor  called  upon  those  who 
were  willing  to  help  in  driving  back  the  Indians 
to  report  at  Beardstown,  on  the  Illinois  River, 
within  a  week. 

Lincoln  and  other  Sangamon  County  men 
went  at  once  to  Richmond  where  a  company  was 
formed.  The  principal  candidate  for  captain 
was  a  man  named  Kirkpatrick,  who  had  treated 
Lincoln  shabbily  when  Abe,  in  one  of  the  odd 
jobs  he  had  done  in  that  region,  worked  in  Kirk- 
patrick's  sawmill.  The  employer  had  agreed  to 
buy  his  hired  man  a  cant-hook  for  handling  the 
heavy  logs.  As  there  was  a  delay  in  doing  this, 
Lincoln  told  him  he  would  handle  the  logs  with- 
out the  cant-hook  if  Kirkpatrick  would  pay  him 
the  two  dollars  that  implement  would  cost.  The 
employer  promised  to  do  this,  but  never  gave  him 
the  money. 

So  when  Lincoln  saw  that  Kirkpatrick  was  a 
candidate  for  the  captaincy,  he  said  to  Greene, 
who  had  worked  with  him  in  Offutt's  store: 

**Bill,  I  believe  I  can  make  Kirkpatrick  pay 
me  that  two  dollars  he  owes  me  on  the  cant-hook 

124 


Abraham  Lincoln 

now.  I  guess  I'll  run  against  him  for  captain." 
Therefore  Abe  Lincoln  aimounced  himself  as 
a  candidate.  The  vote  was  taken  in  an  odd  way. 
It  was  announced  that  when  the  men  heard  the 
command  to  march,  each  should  go  and  stand  by 
the  man  he  wished  to  have  for  captain.  The  com- 
mand was  given.  At  the  word,  *' March,"  three- 
fourths  of  the  company  rallied  round  Abe  Lin- 
coln. More  than  twenty-five  years  afterward, 
when  Lincoln  was  a  candidate  for  the  presidency 
of  the  United  States,  he  referred  to  himself  in 
the  third  person  in  describing  this  incident,  say- 
ing that  he  was  elected  *'to  his  own  surprise," 
and  ^'he  says  he  has  not  since  had  any  success  in 
life  which  gave  him  so  much  satisfaction." 

IGNORANCE  OF  MILITARY  TACTICS 

But  Lincoln  was  a  *'raw  hand"  at  military 
tactics.  He  used  to  enjoy  telling  of  his  igno- 
rance and  the  expedients  adopted  in  giving  his 
commands  to  the  company.  Once  when  he  was 
marching,  twenty  men  abreast,  across  a  field  it 
became  necessary  to  pass  through  a  narrow  gate- 
way into  the  next  field.    He  said : 

'*I  could  not,  for  the  life  of  me,  remember  the 
word  for  getting  the  company  endwise  so  that  it 

125 


The  Story  of  Young 

could  go  through  the  gate;  so,  as  we  came  near 
the  gate,  I  shouted,  'This  company  is  dismissed 
for  two  minutes,  when  it  will  fall  in  again  on  the 
other  side  of  the  fence/  '' 

A  HISTORIC  MYSTERY  EXPLAINED 

Captain  Lincoln  had  his  sword  taken  from 
him  for  shooting  within  limits.  Many  have  won- 
dered that  a  man  of  Lincoln's  intelligence  should 
have  been  guilty  of  this  stupid  infraction  of  ordi- 
nary army  regulations.  Biographers  of  Lincoln 
puzzled  over  this  mitil  the  secret  was  explained 
by  William  Turley  Baker,  of  Bolivia,  111.,  at  the 
Lincoln  Centenary  in  Springfield.  All  micon- 
scious  of  solving  a  historic  mystery,  *' Uncle 
Billy"  Baker  related  the  following  story  which 
explains  that  the  shooting  was  purely  acci- 
dental : 

''My  father  was  roadmaster  general  in  the 
Black  Hawk  War.  Lincoln  used  to  come  often 
to  our  house  and  talk  it  all  over  with  father, 
when  I  was  a  boy,  and  I've  heard  them  laugh 
over  their  experiences  in  that  war.  The  best 
joke  of  all  was  this:  Father  received  orders  one 
day  to  throw  log  bridges  over  a  certain  stream 
the  army  had  to  cross.    He  felled  some  tall,  slim 

126 


Abraham  Lincoln 

black  walnuts — the  only  ones  he  could  find  there 
— and  the  logs  were  so  smooth  and  round  that 
they  were  hard  to  walk  on  any  time.  This  day  it 
rained  and  made  them  very  slippery.  Half  of 
the  soldiers  fell  into  the  stream  and  got  a  good 
ducking.  Captain  Lincoln  was  one  of  those  that 
tumbled  in.  He  just  laughed  and  scrambled  out 
as  quick  as  he  could.  He  always  made  the  best 
of  everything  like  that. 

**Well,  that  evening  when  the  company  came 
to  camp,  some  of  them  had  dog  tents — just  a  big 
canvas  sheet — and  the  boys  laughed  to  see  Lin- 
coln crawl  under  one  of  them  little  tents.  He  was 
so  long  that  his  head  and  hands  and  feet  stuck 
out  on  all  sides.  The  boys  said  he  looked  just 
like  a  big  terrapin.  After  he  had  got  himself 
stowed  away  for  the  night,  he  remembered  that 
he  hadn't  cleaned  his  pistol,  after  he  fell  into 
the  creek. 

"So  he  backed  out  from  under  his  canvas 
shell  and  started  to  clean  it  out.  It  was  what 
was  called  a  bulldog  pistol,  because  it  had  a 
blunt,  short  muzzle.  Abe's  forefinger  was  long 
enough  to  use  as  a  ramrod  for  it.  But  before  he 
began  operations  he  snapped  the  trigger  and,  to 
his  astonishment,  the  thing  went  oJff! 

1?7 


The  Story  of  Young 

*' Pretty  soon  an  orderly  came  along  in  great 
haste,  vellin',  ^Who  did  that?— Who  fired  that 
shot?'  Some  of  the  men  tried  to  send  the  or- 
derly along  about  his  business,  making  believe 
the  report  was  heard  further  on,  but  Lincoln  he 
wouldn't  stand  for  no  such  deception,  spoken 
or  unspoken.  'I  did  it,'  says  he,  beginning  to 
explain  how  it  happened. 

**You  see,  his  legs  was  so  blamed  long,  and 
.he  must  have  landed  on  his  feet,  in  the  creek,  and 
got  out  of  the  water  without  his  pistol  getting 
wet,  'way  up  there  in  his  weskit ! 

*'But  he  had  to  pay  the  penalty  just  the  same, 
for  they  took  his  sword  away  from  him  for  sev- 
eral days.  You  see,  he  was  a  captain  and  ought 
to  'a'  set  a  good  example  in  military  discipline." 

HOW  CAPTAIN  LINCOLN  SAVED  AN  INDIAN'S  LIFE 

One  day  an  old  * 'friendly  Indian"  came  into 
camp  with  a  *' talking  paper"  or  pass  from  the 
''big  white  war  chief."  The  men,  with  the 
pioneer  idea  that  "the  only  good  Indian  is  a 
dead  Indian,"  were  for  stringing  him  up.  The 
poor  old  red  man  protested  and  held  the  gen- 
eral's letter  before  their  eyes. 

"Me  good  Injun,"  he  kept  saying,  "white  war 

128 


Abraham  Lincoln 

chief  say  me  good  Injun.  Look — talking  paper 
— see!" 

'^Get  out!  It's  a  forgery!  Shoot  him!  String 
him  up!"  shouted  the  soldiers  angrily. 

This  noise  brought  Captain  Lincoln  out  of  his 
tent.  At  a  glance  he  saw  what  they  were  about 
to  do.  He  jumped  in  among  them,  shouting  in- 
dignantly : 

''Stand  back,  all  of  you!  For  shame!  I'll 
fight  you  all,  one  after  the  other,  just  as  you 
come.  Take  it  out  on  me  if  you  can,  but  you 
shan't  hurt  this  poor  old  Indian.  When  a  man 
comes  to  me  for  help,  he's  going  to  get  it,  if  I 
have  to  lick  all  Sangamon  County  to  give  it  to 
him." 

The  three  months  for  which  the  men  were  en- 
listed soon  expired,  and  Lincoln's  captaincy  also 
ended.  But  he  re-enlisted  as  a  private,  and  re- 
mained in  the  ranks  until  the  end  of  the  war, 
which  found  him  in  Wisconsin,  hundreds  of 
miles  from  New  Salem.  He  and  a  few  com- 
panions walked  home,  as  there  were  not  many 
horses  to  be  had.  Lincoln  enlivened  the  long 
tramp  with  his  fund  of  stories  and  jokes. 

It  is  sometimes  asserted  that  Abraham  Lin- 
coln and  Jefferson  Davis  met  at  this  early  day, 

129 


The  Story  of  Young 

as  officers  in  the  Black  Hawk  War,  but  this 
statement  is  not  foimded  on  fact,  for  young 
Lieutenant  Davis  was  absent  on  a  furlough  and 
could  not  have  encountered  the  tall  captain  from 
the  Sangamon  then,  as  many  would  like  to  be- 
lieve. 

Lincoln  always  referred  to  the  Black  Hawk 
War  as  a  humorous  adventure.  He  made  a 
funny  speech  in  Congress  describing  some  of  his 
experiences  in  this  campaign  in  which  he  did 
not  take  part  in  a  battle,  nor  did  he  even  catch 
sight  of  a  hostile  Indian. 

AGAIN  A  RIVER  PILOT 

Abe  was  still  out  of  work.  Just  before  he  en- 
listed he  piloted  the  Talisman,  a  steamboat 
which  had  come  up  the  Sangamon  on  a  trial 
trip,  in  which  the  speed  of  the  boat  averaged 
four  miles  an  hour.  At  that  time  the  wildest  ex- 
citement prevailed.  The  coming  of  the  Talis- 
man up  their  little  river  was  hailed  with  grand 
demonstrations  and  much  speech-making. 
Every  one  expected  the  Government  to  spend 
millions  of  dollars  to  make  the  Sangamon  navi- 
gable, and  even  New  Salem  (which  is  not  now  to 
be  found  on  the  map)  was  to  become  a  flourish- 

130 


'YOU  SHAN'T  HURT  THIS  POOR  OLD  INDIAN." 


t) 


Abraham  Lincoln 

ing  city,  in  the  hopeful  imaginings  of  its  few 
inliabitants.  Lincoln,  being  a  candidate,  natu- 
rally ^^took  the  fever,  ^'  and  shared  the  delirium 
that  prevailed.  He  could  hardly  have  done 
otherwise,  even  if  he  had  been  so  disposed.  This 
was  before  the  days  of  railroads,  and  the  com- 
merce and  prosperity  of  the  country  depended 
on  making  the  smaller  streams  navigable.  Lin- 
coln received  forty  dollars,  however,  for  his  serv- 
ices as  pilot.  The  Talisman,  instead  of  estab- 
lishing a  river  connection  with  the  Mississippi 
River  cities,  never  came  back.  She  was  burned 
at  the  wharf  in  St.  Louis,  and  the  navigation  of 
the  poor  little  Sangamon,  which  was  only  a  shal- 
low creek,  was  soon  forgotten. 

Lincoln's  only  defeat  by  a  direct  vote 

When  Abe  returned  from  the  war  he  had  no 
steady  employment.  On  this  account,  espe- 
cially, he  must  have  been  deeply  disappointed  to 
be  defeated  in  the  election  which  took  place 
within  two  weeks  after  his  arrival.  His  patriot- 
ism had  been  stronger  than  his  political  sagac- 
ity. If  he  had  stayed  at  home  to  help  himself  to 
the  Legislature  he  might  have  been  elected, 
though  he  was  then  a  comparative  stranger  in 

131 

p — Lincoln. 


The  Story  of  Young 

the  county.  One  of  the  four  representatives 
chosen  was  Peter  Cartwright,  the  backwoods 
preacher. 

Lincohi  afterward  mentioned  that  this  was 
the  only  time  he  was  ever  defeated  by  a  direct 
vote  of  the  people. 


CHAPTER  XII 


Buying  and  Keeping  a  Store 


After  making  what  he  considered  a  bad  be- 
gimiing  politically,  young  Lincoln  was  on  the 
lookout  for  a  ''business  chance."  One  came  to 
him  in  a  peculiar  way.  A  man  named  Radford 
had  opened  a  store  in  New  Salem.  Possessing 
neither  the  strength  nor  the  sagacity  and  tact  of 
Abe  Lincoln,  he  was  driven  out  of  business  by 
the  Clary's  Grove  Boys,  who  broke  his  store  fix- 
tures and  drank  his  liquors.  In  his  fright 
Radford  was  willing  to  sell  out  at  almost  any 
price  and  take  most  of  his  pay  in  promissory 
notes.  He  was  quickly  accommodated.  Through 
William  Gr.  Greene  a  transfer  was  made  at  once 

132 


Abraham  Lincoln 

from  Reuben  Radford  to  William  Berry  and 
Abraham  Lincoln.  Berry  had  $250  in  cash  and 
made  the  first  payment.  In  a  few  hours  after  a 
violent  visit  from  those  ruffians  from  Clary's 
Grrove  Berry  and  Lincoln  had  formed  a  partner- 
ship and  were  the  nominal  owners  of  a  country 
store. 

The  new  firm  soon  absorbed  the  stock  and 
business  of  another  firm,  James  and  Rowan 
Herndon,  who  had  previously  acquired  the  stock 
and  debts  of  the  predecessors  in  their  business, 
and  all  these  obligations  were  passed  on  with  the 
goods  of  both  the  Radford  and  Herndon  stores 
to  ''Honest  Abe." 

The  senior  partner  of  the  firm  of  Berry  & 
Lincoln  was  devoted  to  the  whisky  which  was 
found  in  the  inventory  of  the  Radford  stock, 
and  the  junior  partner  was  given  over  to  the 
study  of  a  set  of  ''Blackstone's  Commentaries," 
text-books  which  all  lawyers  have  to  study,  that 
came  into  his  possession  in  a  peculiar  way,  as 
Candidate  Lincoln  told  an  artist  who  was  paint- 
ing his  portrait  in  1860 : 

''One  day  a  man  who  was  migrating  to  the 
West  drove  up  in  front  of  my  store  with  a 
wagon  which  contained  his  family  and  house- 

133 


The  Story  of  Young 

hold  plunder.  He  asked  me  if  I  would  buy  an 
old  barrel  for  which  he  had  no  room  in  Ms 
wagon,  and  which  contained  nothing  of  special 
value.  I  did  not  want  it,  but  to  oblige  Mm  I 
bought  it,  and  paid  him,  I  think,  half  a  dollar 
for  it.  Without  further  examination  I  put  it 
away  in  the  store  and  forgot  all  about  it. 

^^Some  time  after,  in  overhauling  things,  I 
came  upon  the  barrel,  and  emptying  it  on  the 
floor  to  see  what  it  contained,  I  found  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  rubbish  a  complete  set  of  'Black- 
stone's  Commentaries.'  I  began  to  read  those 
famous  works.  I  had  plenty  of  time ;  for  during 
the  long  summer  days,  when  the  farmers  were 
busy  with  their  crops,  my  customers  were  few 
and  far  between.  The  more  I  read  the  more  in- 
tensely interested  I  became.  Never  in  my  whole 
life  was  my  mind  so  thoroughly  absorbed.  I 
read  until  I  devoured  them." 

With  one  partner  drinking  whisky  and  the 
other  devouring  ''Blackstone,"  it  was  not  sur- 
prising that  the  business  '^ winked  out,"  as  Lin- 
coln whimsically  expressed  it,  leaving  the  con- 
scientious junior  partner  saddled  with  the  obli- 
gations of  the  former  owners  of  two  country 
stores,  and  owing  an  amount  so  large  that  Lin- 

134 


Abraham  Lincoln 

com  often  referred  to  it  as  'Hlie  national  debt.'' 
William  Berry,  the  senior  partner,  who  was 
equally  responsible,  ''drank  himself  to  death," 
leaving'  Lincoln  alone  to  pay  all  the  debts. 

According  to  the  custom  and  conscience  of  the 
time,  the  insolvent  young  merchant  was  under 
no  obligation  whatever  to  pay  liabilities  con- 
tracted by  the  other  men,  but  Lincoln  could 
never  be  induced  even  to  compromise  any  of  the 
accounts  the  others  had  gone  off  and  left  him  to 
settle.  ''Honest  Abe"  paid  the  last  cent  of  his 
"national  debt"  nearly  twenty  years  later,  after 
much  toil,  self-denial  and  hardship. 

POSTMASTER  LIISTCOLN  AND  JACK  ARMSTRONG'S 

FAMILY 

Again  out  of  employment,  Abe  was  forced  to 
accept  the  hospitality  of  his  friends  of  whom  he 
now  had  a  large  number.  While  in  business 
with  Berry  he  received  the  appointment  as  post- 
master. The  pay  of  the  New  Salem  post  office 
was  not  large,  but  Lincoln,  always  longing  for 
news  and  knowledge,  had  the  privilege  of  read- 
ing the  newspapers  which  passed  through  his 
hands.  He  took  so  much  pains  in  delivering  the 
letters  and  papers  that  came  into  his  charge  as 

135 


The  Stoiy  of  Young 

postmaster  that  he  anticipated  the  ^^  special  de- 
livery'^ and  ''rural  free  delivery"  features  of 
the  postal  service  of  the  present  day. 

''a.  LINCOLN,  DEPUTY  SURVEYOR" 

Later  John  Calhoun,  the  countj^  surveyor, 
sent  word  to  Lincoln  that  he  would  appoint  him 
deputy  survej'or  of  the  county  if  he  would  ac- 
cept the  position.  The  young  man,  greatly  as- 
tonished, went  to  Springfield  to  call  on  Calhoun 
and  see  if  the  storj^  could  be  true.  Calhoun  knew 
that  Lincoln  was  utterly  ignorant  of  survejdng, 
but  told  him  he  might  take  time  to  study  up.  As 
soon  as  Lincoln  was  assured  that  the  appoint- 
ment did  not  involve  any  political  obligation — 
for  Calhoun  was  a  Jackson  Democrat,  and  Lin- 
coln was  already  a  stamich  Wliig — ^he  procured 
a  copy  of  Flint  and  Gibson's  "Survejdng"  and 
went  to  work  with  a  mil.  With  the  aid  of  Men- 
tor Graham,  and  studying  day  and  night,  he 
mastered  the  subject  and  reported  to  Calhoun  in 
six  weeks.  The  county  surveyor  was  astounded, 
but  when  Lincoln  gave  ample  proofs  of  his  abil- 
ity to  do  field  work,  the  chief  surveyor  appointed 
him  a  deputy  and  assigned  him  to  the  northern 
part  of  Sangamon  County. 

136 


Abraham  Lincoln 

Deputy  Surveyor  Lincoln  had  to  run  deeper 
in  debt  for  a  horse  and  surveying  instruments  in 
order  to  do  this  new  work.  Although  he  made 
three  dollars  a  day  at  it — a  large  salary  for  that 
time — and  board  and  expenses  were  cheap,  he 
was  unable  to  make  money  fast  enough  to  satisfy 
one  creditor  who  was  pushing  him  to  pay  one  of 
the  old  debts  left  by  the  failure  of  Berry  &  Lin- 
coln. This  man  sued  Lincoln  and,  getting  judg- 
ment, seized  the  deputy's  horse  and  instruments. 
This  was  like  ^'killing  the  goose  that  laid  the 
golden  egg.^^  Lincoln  was  in  despair.  But  a 
friend,  as  a  surprise,  bought  in  the  horse  and 
instruments  for  one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars 
and  presented  them  to  the  struggling  surveyor. 

President  Lincoln,  many  years  afterward, 
generously  repaid  this  man,  ''Uncle  Jimmy" 
Short,  for  his  friendly  act  in  that  hour  of  need. 

Lincoln's  reputation  as  a  story  teller  and 
wrestler  had  spread  so  that  when  it  became 
known  that  he  was  to  survey  a  tract  in  a  certain 
district  the  whole  neighborhood  turned  out  and 
held  a  sort  of  picnic.  Men  and  boys  stood  ready 
to  ''carry  chain,"  drive  stakes,  blaze  trees,  or 
work  for  the  popular  deputy  in  any  capacity — 
just  to  hear  his  funny  stories  and  odd  jokes. 

137, 


The  Stoiy  of  Young 

They  had  foot  races,  wrestlmg  matches  and  other 
athletic  sports,  in  which  the  surveyor  sometimes 
took  part. 

But  Lincoln's  honesty  was  as  manifest  in 
** running  his  lines"  as  in  his  weights  and  meas- 
ures while  he  was  a  clerk  and  storekeeper.  In 
whatever  he  attempted  he  did  his  best.  He  had 
that  true  genius,  which  is  defined  as  *'the  ability 
to  take  pains."  With  all  his  jokes  and  fim  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  was  deeply  in  earnest.  Careless 
work  in  making  surveys  involved  the  landhold- 
ers of  that  part  of  the  country  in  endless  dis- 
putes and  going  to  law  about  bomidaries.  But 
Lincoln's  surveys  were  recognized  as  correct  al- 
ways, so  that,  although  he  had  mastered  the  sci- 
ence in  six  weeks,  lawj^ers  and  courts  had  such 
confidence  in  his  skill,  as  well  as  his  honesty, 
that  his  record  as  to  a  certain  corner  or  line  was 
accepted  as  the  true  verdict  and  that  ended  the 
dispute. 

ELECTED  TO  THE  LEGISLATURE 

Hampered  though  he  was  by  luijust  debts  and 
unreasonable  creditors,  Postmaster  and  Sur- 
veyor Lincoln  gained  an  honorable  reputation 
throughout  the  county,  so  that  when  he  ran  for 

^138 


Abraham  Lincoln 

the  State  Legislature,  in  1834,  he  was  elected  by 
a  creditable  majority. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


The  Young  Legislator  in  Love 


shoot's  responsibilitt 

Paying  his  debts  had  kept  Lincoln  so  poor 
that,  though  he  had  been  elected  to  the  Legisla- 
ture, he  was  not  properly  clothed  or  equipped 
to  make  himself  presentable  as  the  people's  rep- 
resentative at  the  State  capital,  then  located  at 
Vandalia.  One  day  he  went  with  a  friend  to 
call  on  an  older  acquaintance,  named  Smoot, 
who  was  almost  as  dry  a  joker  as  himself,  but 
Smoot  had  more  of  this  world's  goods  than  the 
young  legislator-elect.  Lincoln  began  at  once  to 
chaff  his  friend. 

Smoot,"  said  he,  *^did  you  vote  for  me?" 
'I  did  that  very  thing,"  answered  Smoot. 

**Well,"  said  Lincoln  with  a  wink,  ''that 
makes  you  responsible.    You  must  lend  me  the 

139 


The  Story  of  Young 

money  to  buy  suitable  clothing,  for  I  want  to 
make  a  decent  appearance  in  the  Legislature." 
^'How  much  do  you  want?"  asked  Smoot. 
^' About  two  hundred  dollars,  I  reckon." 
For  friendship's  sake  and  for  the  honor  of 
Sangamon  County  the  young  representative  re- 
ceived the  money  at  once. 

ANN  RUTLEDGE — *' LOVED  AND  LOST" 

Abe  Lincoln's  new  suit  of  clothes  made  him 
look  still  more  handsome  in  the  eyes  of  Ann,  the 
daughter  of  the  proprietor  of  Rutledge's  Tav- 
ern, where  Abe  was  boarding  at  that  time.  She 
was  a  beautiful  girl  who  had  been  betrothed  to 
a  young  man  named  McNamar,  who  was  said  to 
have  returned  to  New  York  State  to  care  for  his 
dying  father  and  look  after  the  family  estate. 
It  began  to  leak  out  that  this  young  man  was 
going  about  under  an  assumed  name  and  certain 
suspicious  circumstances  came  to  light.  But 
Ann,  though  she  loved  the  young  legislator,  still 
clung  to  her  promise  and  the  man  who  had 
proved  false  to  her.  As  time  went  on,  though 
she  was  supposed  to  be  betrothed  to  Mr.  Lincoln, 
the  treatment  she  had  received  from  the  recre- 
ant lover  preyed  upon  her  mind  so  that  she  fell 

140 


Abraham  Lincoln 

into  a  decline  in  the  summer  of  1835,  about  a 
year  after  her  true  lover's  election  to  the  Legis- 
lature. 

William  O.  Stoddard,  one  of  the  President's 
private  secretaries,  has  best  told  the  story  of  the 
young  lover's  despair  over  the  loss  of  his  first 
love: 

*'It  is  not  known  precisely  when  Ann  Rut- 
ledge  told  her  suitor  that  her  heart  was  his,  but 
early  in  1835  it  was  publicly  known  that  they 
were  solemnly  betrothed.  Even  then  the  scrupu- 
lous maiden  waited  for  the  return  of  the  absent 
McNamar,  that  she  might  be  formally  released 
from  the  obligation  to  him  which  he  had  so  reck- 
lessly forfeited.  Her  friends  argued  with  her 
that  she  was  carrjdng  her  scruples  too  far,  and 
at  last,  as  neither  man  nor  letter  came,  she  per- 
mitted it  to  be  understood  that  she  would  marry 
Abraham  Lincoln  as  soon  as  his  legal  studies 
should  be  completed. 

^^That  was  a  glorious  summer  for  him;  the 
brightest,  sweetest,  most  hopeful  he  yet  had 
known.  It  was  also  the  fairest  time  he  was  ever 
to  see;  for  even  now,  as  the  golden  days  came 
and  went,  they  brought  an  increasing  shadow  on 
their  wings.    It  was  a  shadow  that  was  not  to 

141 


The  Story  of  Young 

pass  away.  Little  by  little  came  indications  that 
the  health  of  Ann  Rutleclge  had  suffered  under 
the  prolonged  strain  to  which  she  had  been  sub- 
jected. Her  sensitive  nature  had  been  strung 
to  too  high  a  tension  an.d  the  chords  of  her  life 
were  bogimiing  to  give  way. 

^' There  were  those  of  her  friends  who  said 
that  she  died  of  a  broken  heart,  but  the  doctors 
called  it  'brain  fever.' 

''On  the  25th  of  August,  1835,  just  before  the 
summer  died,  she  passed  away  from  earth.  But 
she  never  faded  from  the  heart  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. ...  In  her  early  grave  was  buried  the 
best  hope  he  ever  knew,  and  the  shadow  of  that 
great  darkness  was  never  entirely  lifted  from 
him. 

"A  few  days  before  Ann's  death  a  message 
from  her  brought  her  betrothed  to  her  bedside, 
and  they  were  left  alone.  No  one  ever  knew 
what  passed  between  them,  in  the  endless  mo- 
ments of  that  last  sad  farewell ;  but  Lincoln  left 
the  house  with  inexpressible  agony  written  upon 
his  face.  He  had  been  to  that  hour  a  man  of 
marvelous  poise  and  self-control,  but  the  pain  he 
now  struggled  with  grew  deeper  and  more  deep, 
until,  when  they  came  and  told  him  she  was 

142 


Abraham  Lincoln 

dead,  his  heart  and  will,  and  even  his  brain  itself 
gave  way.  He  was  utterly  without  help  or  the 
knowledge  of  possible  help  in  this  world  or 
beyond  it.  He  was  frantic  for  a  time,  seeming 
even  to  lose  the  sense  of  his  own  identity,  and  all 
New  Salem  said  that  he  was  insane.  He  pite- 
ously  moaned  and  raved : 

'*  'I  never  can  be  reconciled  to  have  the  snow, 
rain,  and  storms  beat  upon  her  grave. ' 

''His  best  friends  seemed  to  have  lost  their 
influence  over  him,  ...  all  but  one;  for 
Bowling  Green  .  .  .  managed  to  entice  the 
poor  fellow  to  his  own  home,  a  short  distance 
from  the  village,  there  to  keep  watch  and  ward 
over  him  until  the  fury  of  his  sorrow  should 
wear  away.  There  were  well-grounded  fears 
lest  he  might  do  himself  some  injury,  and  the 
watch  was  vigilantly  kept. 

*'In  a  few  weeks  reason  again  obtained  the 
mastery,  and  it  was  safe  to  let  him  return  to  his 
studies  and  his  work.  He  could  indeed  work 
again,  and  he  could  once  more  study  law,  for 
there  was  a  kind  of  relief  in  steady  occupation 
and  absorbing  toil,  but  he  was  not,  could  not  ever 
be  the  same  man.    .    .    . 

*' Lincoln  had  been  fond  of  poetry  from  boy- 

143 


The  Story  of  Young 

hood,  and  had  gradually  made  himself  familiar 
with  large  parts  of  Shakespeare's  plays  and  the 
works  of  other  great  Avi-iters.  He  now  discov- 
ered, in  a  strange  collection  of  verses,  the  one 
poem  which  seemed  best  to  express  the  morbid, 
troubled,  sore  condition  of  his  mind,  ...  the 
lines  by  William  Knox,  beginning : 


a  6 


Oh,  why  should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be 
proud  ? 

Like  a  swift  fleeting  meteor,  a  fast  fly- 
ing cloud, 

A  flash  of  the  lightnmg,  a  break  of  the 
wave, 

He  passeth  from  life  to  his  rest  in  the 
grave:'  " 

*^THE  LONG  nine"  AND  THE  REMOVAL  TO 
SPRINGFIELD 

Two  years  was  the  term  for  which  Lincoln  was 
elected  to  the  Legislature.  The  year  following 
the  death  of  Ann  Rutledge  he  threw  himself  into 
a  vigorous  campaign  for  re-election.  He  had 
found  much  to  do  at  Vandalia.  The  greatest 
thing  was  the  proposed  removal  of  the  State 
capital  to  Springfield.  In  this  enterprise  he  had 
the  co-operation  of  a  group  of  tall  men,  known 

144 


Abraham  Lincoln 

as  'Hlie  Long  Nine,"  of  whom  he  was  the  tallest 
and  came  to  be  the  leader. 

Lincoln  annomiced  his  second  candidacy  in 
this  brief,  informal  letter  in  the  county  paper: 

*'¥ew  Salem,  June  13,  1836. 
'^To  THE  Editor  of  the  Journal: 

*'In  your  paper  of  last  Saturday  I 
see  a  communication  over  the  signature 
of  'Many  Voters'  in  which  the  candi- 
dates who  are  announced  in  the  Journal 
are  called  upon  to  'show  their  hands.' 

*' Agreed.    Here's  mine: 

*'I  go  in  for  all  sharing  the  privi- 
leges of  the  government  who  assist  in 
bearing  its  burdens.  Consequently,  I 
go  for  admitting  all  whites  to  the  right 
of  suffrage  who  pay  taxes  or  bear  arms 
(by  no  means  excluding  females). 

"If  elected,  I  shall  consider  the 
whole  people  of  Sangamon  my  con- 
stituents, as  well  those  that  oppose  as 
those  that  support  me. 

"While  acting  as  their  Representa- 
tive, I  shall  be  governed  by  their  will 
on  all  subjects  upon  which  I  have  the 
means  of  knowing  w^hat  their  will  is; 
and  upon  all  others  I  shall  do  what  my 
own  judgment  teaches  me  will  best  ad- 

145 


The  StorjT;  of  Young 

vance  their  interests.  Whether  elected 
or  not,  I  go  for  distributing  the  pro- 
ceeds of  public  lands  to  the  several 
States  to  enable  our  State,  in  common 
with  others,  to  dig  canals  and  construct 
railroads  without  borrowing  and  pay- 
ing interest  on  it. 

^'If  alive  on  the  first  Monday  in  No- 
vember, I  shall  vote  for  Hugh  L. 
White  for  President. 

*^Very  respectfully, 

^^A.  Lincoln".'' 

The  earliest  railroads  in  the  United  States 
had  been  built  during  the  five  years  just  preced- 
ing this  amiouncement,  the  first  one  of  all,  only 
thirteen  miles  long,  near  Baltimore,  in  1831.  It 
is  interesting  to  observe  the  enthusiasm  with 
which  the  young  frontier  politician  caught  the 
progressive  idea,  and  how  quickly  the  minds  of 
the  people  turned  from  impossible  river  ^^im- 
provements" to  the  grand  possibilities  of  rail- 
way transportation. 

Many  are  the  stories  of  the  remarkable  San- 
gamon campaign  in  1836.  Rowan  Herndon, 
Abe's  fellow  pilot  and  storekeeper,  told  the  fol- 
lowing : 

146 


HE  TOOK  THK  CRADLC  AND  LED  AEE  THE  WAY   ROUND. 


Abraham  Lincoln 

WINNING   VOTES,    WIELDING    THE    '' CRADLE"   IN    A 

WHEAT  FIELD 

* 'Abraham  came  to  my  house,  near  Island 
Grove,  during  harvest.  There  were  some  thirty 
men  in  the  field.  He  got  his  dinner  and  went  out 
into  the  field,  where  the  men  were  at  work.  I 
gave  him  an  introduction,  and  the  boys  said  that 
they  could  not  vote  for  a  man  unless  he  could 
take  a  hand. 

*'  'Well,  boys,'  said  he,  'if  that  is  all,  I  am  sure 
of  your  votes  '  He  took  the  'cradle'  and  led  all 
the  way  round  with  perfect  ease.  The  boys  were 
satisfied,  and  I  don't  think  he  lost  a  vote  in  the 
crowd. 

"The  next  day  there  was  speaking  at  Berlin. 
He  went  from  my  house  with  Dr.  Barnett,  who 
had  asked  me  who  this  man  Lincoln  was.  I  told 
him  that  he  was  a  candidate  for  the  Legislature. 
He  laughed  and  said : 

"  'Can't  the  party  raise  any  better  material 
than  that?' 

"I  said,  'Go  to-morrow  and  hear  him  before 
you  pronounce  judgment.' 

"When  he  came  back  I  said,  'Doctor,  what  do 
you  say  now?' 

"  'Why,  sir,'  said  he,  'he  is  a  perfect  "take- 

147 

JO — Lincoln. 


The  Story  of  Young 

in.''    He  knows  more  than  all  of  them  put  to- 
gether.' " 

TALKED  TO  A  WOMAN  WHILE  HIS  RIVAL  MILKED 

Yomig  Lincoln  happened  to  call  to  speak  to  a 
leading  farmer  in  the  district,  and  found  his 
rival,  a  Democratic  candidate,  there  on  the  same 
errand.  The  farmer  was  awav  from  home,  so 
each  of  the  candidates  did  his  best  to  gain  the 
good- will  of  the  farmer's  *^ better  half,"  who  was 
on  her  way  to  milk  the  cow.  The  Democrat 
seized  the  pail  and  insisted  on  doing  the  work 
for  her.  Lincoln  did  not  make  the  slightest  ob- 
jection, but  improved  the  opportunity  thus  given 
to  chat  with  their  hostess.  This  he  did  so  suc- 
cessfully that  when  his  rival  had  finished  the 
unpleasant  task,  the  only  acknowledgment  he 
received  was  a  profusion  of  thanks  from  the 
woman  for  the  opportunity  he  had  given  her  of 
having  '^sucJi  a  pleasant  talk  tvitli  Mr.  Lincoln!" 

HOW  THE  LIGHTNING  STRUCK  FORQUER,  IN"  SPITE  OF 
HIS  LIGHTNING-ROD 

Abe  disinguished  himself  in  his  first  political 
speech  at  Springfield,  the  county  seat.  A  lead- 
ing citizen  there,  George  Forquer,  was  accused 

148 


Abraham  Lincoln 

of  changing  his  political  opinions  to  secure  a  cer- 
tain government  position;  he  also  had  his  fine 
residence  protected  by  the  first  lightning-rod 
ever  seen  in  that  part  of  the  country. 

The  contest  was  close  and  exciting.  There 
were  seven  Democratic  and  seven  Wliig  candi- 
dates for  the  lower  branch  of  the  Legislature. 
Forquer,  though  not  a  candidate,  asked  to  be 
heard  in  reply  to  young  Lincoln,  whom  he  pro- 
ceeded to  attack  in  a  sneering  overbearing  way, 
ridiculing  the  young  man's  appearance,  dress, 
manners  and  so  on.  Turning  to  Lincoln  w^ho 
then  stood  within  a  few  feet  of  him,  Forquer  an- 
nounced his  intention  in  these  words:  ''This 
young  man  must  be  taken  down,  and  I  am  truly 
sorry  that  the  task  devolves  upon  me. ' ' 

The  ''Clary's  Grove  Boys,"  who  attended  the 
meeting  in  a  body — or  a  gang ! — could  hardly  be 
restrained  from  arising  in  their  might  and  smit- 
ing the  pompous  Forquer,  hip  and  thigh. 

But  their  hero,  with  pale  face  and  flashing 
eyes,  smiled  as  he  shook  his  head  at  them,  and 
calmly  answered  the  insulting  speech  of  his  op- 
ponent.   Among  other  things  he  said: 

"The  gentleman  commenced  his  speech  by  say- 
ing 'this  young  man,'  alluding  to  me,  'must  be 

149 


The  Story  of  Young 

taken  down.'  I  am  not  so  young  in  years  as  I 
am  in  the  tricks  and  trades  of  a  politician,  but" 
— pointing  at  Forquer — ''live  long  or  die  young, 
I  would  rather  die  now  than,  like  the  gentleman, 
change  my  politics,  and  with  the  change  receive 
an  office  worth  three  thousand  dollars  a  year, 
and  then  feel  obliged  to  erect  a  lightning-rod 
over  my  house  to  protect  a  guilty  conscience 
from  an  offended  God!" 

This  stroke  blasted  Forquer 's  political  pros- 
pects forever,  and  satisfied  the  Clary's  Grove 
Boys  that  it  was  even  better  than  all  the  things 
they  would  have  done  to  him. 

ABE  LINCOLN  AS  A  '' BLOATED  ARISTOCRAT" 

On  another  occasion  Lincoln's  wit  suddenly 
turned  the  tables  on  an  abusive  opponent.  One 
of  the  Democratic  orators  was  Colonel  Dick 
Taylor,  a  dapper,  but  bombastic  little  man,  who 
rode  in  his  carriage,  and  dressed  richly.  But, 
politically,  he  boasted  of  belonging  to  the  Dem- 
ocrats, *'the  bone  and  sinew,  the  hard-fisted  yeo- 
manry of  the  land,"  and  sneered  at  those  ''rag 
barons,"  those  Whig  aristocrats,  the  "silk  stock- 
ing gentry ! "  As  Abe  Lincoln,  the  leading  Whig 
present,  was  dressed  in  Kentucky  jeans,  coarse 

150 


Abraham  Lincoln 

boots,  a  checkered  shirt  without  a  collar  or  neck- 
tie, and  an  old  slouch  hat,  Colonel  Taylor's  at- 
tack on  the  ^^ bloated  Whig  aristocracy"  sounded 
rather  absurd. 

Once  the  colonel  made  a  gesture  so  violent  that 
it  tore  his  vest  open  and  exposed  his  elegant  shirt 
ruffles,  his  gold  watch-fob,  his  seals  and  other 
ornaments  to  the  view  of  all.  Before  Taylor,  in 
his  embarrassment,  could  adjust  his  waistcoat, 
Lincoln  stepped  to  the  front  exclaiming: 

^'Behold  the  hard-fisted  Democrat!  Look  at 
this  specimen  of  ^bone  and  sinew' — and  here, 
gentlemen,"  laying  his  big  work-bronzed  hand 
on  his  heart  and  bowing  obsequiously — ''here,  at 
your  service,  is  your  'aristocrat!'  Here  is  one 
of  your  'silk  stocking  gentry!'  Then  spreading 
out  his  great  bony  hands  he  continued,  "Here  is 
your  'rag  baron'  with  his  lily-white  hands.  Yes, 
I  suppose  I  am,  according  to  my  friend  Taylor, 
a  'bloated  aristocrat!'  " 

The  contrast  was  so  ludicrous,  and  Abe  had 
quoted  the  speaker's  stock  phrases  with  such  a 
marvelous  mimicry  that  the  crowd  burst  into  a 
roar,  and  Colonel  Dick  Taylor's  usefulness  as  a 
campaign  speaker  was  at  an  end. 

Small  wonder,  then,  that  young  Lincoln's  wit, 

151 


The  Story  of  Young 

wisdom  and  power  of  ridieule  made  Mm  known 
in  that  campaign  as  one  of  the  greatest  orators 
in  the  State,  or  that  he  was  elected  by  such  an 
astonishing  j^kiralit}^  that  the  county,  which  had 
always  been  strongly  Democratic,  elected  Whig 
representatives  that  year. 

After  Herculean  labors  ''the  Long  Nine"  suc- 
ceeded in  having  the  State  capital  removed  from 
Vandalia  to  Springfield.  This  move  added 
greatty  to  the  influence  and  reno^vn  of  its  ''prime 
mover,"  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  was  feasted  and 
"toasted"  by  the  people  of  Springfield  and  by 
politicians  all  over  the  State.  After  reading 
"Blackstone"  during  his  political  campaigns, 
young  Lincoln  fell  in  again  with  Major  John  T. 
Stuart,  whom  he  had  met  in  the  Black  Hawk 
War,  and  who  gave  him  helpful  advice  and  lent 
him  other  books  that  he  might  "read  law." 

THE  LINCOLN-STONE  PROTEST 

Although  he  had  no  idea  of  it  at  the  time-, 
Abraham  Lincoln  took  part  in  a  grander  move- 
ment than  the  removal  of  a  State  capital.  Reso- 
lutions were  adopted  in  the  Legislature  in  favor 
of  slavery  and  denouncing  the  hated  "abolition- 
ists"— or  people  who  spoke  and  wrote  for  the 

152 


Abraham  Lincoln 

abolition  of  slavery.  It  required  true  heroism 
for  a  young  man  thus  to  stand  out  against  the 
legislators  of  his  State,  but  Abe  Lincoln  seems 
to  have  thought  little  of  that.  The  hatred  of  the 
people  for  any  one  who  opposed  slavery  was  very 
bitter.  Lincoln  found  one  man,  named  Stone, 
who  was  willing  to  sign  a  protest  against  the 
resolutions  favoring  slavery,  which  read  as  fol- 
lows: 

"Resolutions  upon  the  subject  of  do- 
mestic slavery  having  passed  both 
branches  of  the  General  Assembly  at 
its  present  session,  the  undersigned 
hereby  protest  against  the  passage  of 
the  same. 

''They  believe  that  the  institution  of 
slavery  is  founded  on  both  injustice 
and  bad  policy.  [After  several  state- 
ments of  their  belief  concerning  the 
powers  of  Congress,  the  protest  closed 
as  follows:] 

"The  difference  between  their  opin- 
ions and  those  contained  in  the  said 
resolution  is  their  reason  for  entering 
this  protest. 

"Dan  Stone, 
"A.  Lincoln.'' 


15 


Q 


,The  Storjr  of  Young 


CHAPTER  XIV 


Moving  to  Springfield 


New  Salem  could  no  longer  give  young  Lin- 
coln scope  for  his  growing  power  and  influence. 
Within  a  few  weeks  after  the  Lincoln- Stone  pro- 
test, late  in  March,  1837,  after  living  six  years  in 
the  little  village  which  held  so  much  of  life  and 
sorrow  for  him,  Abe  sold  his  surveying  compass, 
marking-pins,  chain  and  pole,  packed  all  his  ef- 
fects into  his  saddle-bags,  borrowed  a  horse  of 
his  good  friend  ^'Squire"  Bowling  Green,  and 
reluctantly  said  good-bye  to  his  friends  there.  It 
is  a  strange  fact  that  New  Salem  ceased  to  exist 
within  a  year  from  the  day  *' Honest  Abe"  left 
it.  Even  its  little  post  office  was  discontinued  by 
the  Government. 

Henry  C.  Whitney,  who  was  associated  with 
Lincoln  in  those  early  days,  describes  Abe's  mod- 
est entry  into  the  future  State  capital,  with  all 
his  possessions  in  a  pair  of  saddle-bags,  and  call- 
ing at  the  store  of  Joshua  P.  Speed,  overlooking 
*Hhe  square,"  in  the  following  dialogue: 

154 


Abraham  Lincoln 

Speed — ''Hello,  Abe,  just  from  Salem?" 

Lincoln — ''Howdy,  Speed!  Yes,  this  is  my 
first  show-up." 

Speed — "So  you  are  to  be  one  of  us?" 

Lincoln — "I  reckon  so,  if  you  will  let  me  take 
pot  luck  with  you. ' ' 

Speed — "All  right,  Abe;  it's  better  than 
Salem." 

Lincoln — "IVe  been  to  Gorman's  and  got  a 
single  bedstead ;  now  you  figure  out  what  it  will 
cost  for  a  tick,  blankets  and  so  forth." 

Speed  (after  figuring) — "Say,  seventeen  dol- 
lars or  so." 

Lincoln  (countenance  paling) — "I  had  no  idea 
it  would  cost  half  that,  and  I — I  can't  pay  it ;  but 
if  you  can  wait  on  me  till  Christmas,  and  I  make 
anything,  I'll  pay;  if  I  don't,  I  can't." 

Speed — "I  can  do  better  than  that;  upstairs  I 
sleep  in  a  bed  big  enough  for  two,  and  you  just 
come  and  sleep  with  me  till  you  can  do  bet- 
ter." 

Lincoln  (brightening) — "Good,  where  is  it?" 

Speed — "Upstairs  behind  that  pile  of  barrels 
— turn  to  the  right  when  you  go  up. " 

Lincoln  (returning  joyously) — "Well,  Speed, 
I've  moved!" 

155 


The  Story  of  Yomig 

STUART  &  LINCOLN 

Major  Stuart  had  grown  so  thoroughly  inter- 
ested in  Lincoln,  approving  the  diligence  with 
which  the  young  law  student  applied  himself  to 
the  books  which  he  had  lent  him,  that,  after  his 
signal  success  in  bringing  about  the  removal  of 
the  State  capital  to  Springfield,  the  older  man 
invited  the  younger  to  go  into  partnership  with 
him. 

Abe  had  been  admitted  to  the  bar  the  year  be- 
fore, and  had  practiced  law  in  a  small  way  be- 
fore Squire  Bowling  Green  in  -New  Salem. 
Greatly  flattered  by  the  offer  of  such  a  man,  Abe 
gladly  accepted,  and  soon  after  his  arrival  in 
Springfield  this  sign,  which  thrilled  the  junior 
partner's  whole  being,  appeared  in  front  of  an 
office  near  the  square: 


STUART  &  LINCOLN 
Attorneys-at-Law 


*^I  KEVER  rSE  ANY  ONE'S  MONEY  BUT  MY  OWN" 

After  a  while  Lincoln  left  Speed's  friendly 
loft  and  slept  on  a  loimge  in  the  law  office,  keep- 

156 


Abraham  Lincoln 

ing  his  few  ei^eets  in  the  little  old-fashioned 
trunk  pushed  out  of  sight  under  his  couch. 

One  day  an  agent  of  the  Post  Office  Depart- 
ment came  in  and  asked  if  Abraham  Lincoln 
could  be  found  there.  Abe  arose  and,  reaching 
out  his  hand,  said  that  was  his  name.  The  agent 
then  stated  his  business ;  he  had  come  to  collect 
a  balance  due  the  Post  Office  Department  since 
the  closing  of  the  post  office  at  New  Salem. 

The  young  ex-postmaster  looked  puzzled  for 
a  moment,  and  a  friend,  who  happened  to  be 
present,  hastened  to  his  rescue  with,  '^Lincoln, 
if  you  are  in  need  of  money,  let  us  help  you." 

Abe  made  no  reply,  but,  pulling  out  his  little 
old  trunk,  he  asked  the  agent  how  much  he  owed. 
The  man  stated  the  amount,  and  he,  opening  the 
trunk,  took  out  an  old  cotton  cloth  containing 
coins,  which  he  handed  to  the  official  without 
counting,  and  it  proved  to  be  the  exact  sum  re- 
quired, over  seventeen  dollars,  evidently  the 
very  pieces  of  money  Abe  had  received  while 
acting  as  postmaster  years  before  I 

After  the  department  agent  had  receipted  for 
the  money  and  had  gone  out,  Mr.  Lincoln  quietly 
remarked : 

*^I  never  use  any  one's  money  but  my  own.'' 

157 


The  Story  of  Young 

DROPS    THROUGH    THE    CEHjING    TO    DEMAND    FREE 

SPEECH 

Stuart  &  Lincoln's  office  was,  for  a  time,  over 
a  court  room,  which  was  used  evenings  as  a  hall. 
There  was  a  square  opening  in  the  ceiling  of  the 
court  room,  covered  by  a  trap  door  in  the  room 
overhead  where  Lincoln  slept.  One  night  there 
was  a  promiscuous  crowd  in  the  hall,  and 
Lincoln's  friend,  E.  D.  Baker,  was  deliver- 
ing a  political  harangue.  Becoming  some- 
what excited  Baker  made  an  accusation  against 
a  well-known  newspaper  in  Springfield,  and 
the  remark  was  resented  by  several  in  the  audi- 
ence. 

''Pull  him  down  I"  yelled  one  of  them  as  they 
came  up  to  the  platform  threatening  Baker  with 
personal  violence.  There  was  considerable  con- 
fusion which  might  become  a  riot. 

Just  at  this  juncture  the  spectators  were 
astonished  to  see  a  pair  of  long  legs  dangling 
from  the  ceiling  and  Abraham  Lincoln  dropped 
upon  the  platform.  Seizing  the  water  pitcher 
he  took  his  stand  beside  the  speaker,  and 
brandished  it,  his  face  ablaze  with  indignation. 

''Gentlemen,"  he  said,  when  the  confusion 
had  subsided,  "let  us  not  disgrace  the  age  and 

158 


Abraham  Lincoln 

the  country  in  which  we  live.  This  is  a  land 
where  freedom  of  speech  is  guaranteed.  Mr. 
Baker  has  a  right  to  speak,  and  ought  to  be  per- 
mitted to  do  so.  I  am  here  to  protect  him  and  no 
man  shall  take  him  from  this  stand  if  I  can  pre- 
vent it."  Lincoln  had  opened  the  trap  door  in 
his  room  and  silently  watched  the  proceedings 
until  he  saw  that  his  presence  was  needed  below. 
Then  he  dropped  right  into  the  midst  of  the  fray, 
and  defended  his  friend  and  the  right  of  free 
speech  at  the  same  time. 

DEFENDIJTG  THE  DEFENSELESS 

A  widow  came  to  Mr.  Lincoln  and  told  him 
how  an  attorney  had  charged  her  an  exorbitant 
fee  for  collecting  her  pension.  Such  cases  filled 
him  with  righteous  ^vrath.  He  cared  nothing  for 
''professional  etiquette,"  if  it  permitted  the 
swindling  of  a  poor  woman.  Going  directly  to 
the  greedy  lawyer,  he  forced  him  to  refund  to 
the  widow  all  that  he  had  charged  in  excess  of  a 
fair  fee  for  his  services,  or  he  would  start  pro- 
ceedings at  once  to  prevent  the  extortionate  at- 
torney from  practicing  law  any  longer  at  the 
Springfield  bar. 

159 


The  Story  of  Young 

If  a  negro  had  been  wronged  in  any  way,  Law- 
yer Lineohi  was  the  only  attorney  in  Spring- 
field who  dared  to  appear  in  his  behalf,  for  he 
always  did  so  at  great  risk  to  his  political  stand- 
ing. Sometimes  he  appeared  in  defense  of  fugi- 
tive slaves,  or  negroes  who  had  been  freed  or  had 
run  away  from  southern  or  "slave"  States 
where  slavery  prevailed  to  gain  liberty  in  "free" 
States  in  which  slavery  was  not  allowed.  Law- 
yer Lincoln  did  all  this  at  the  risk  of  making 
himself  very  unpopular  with  his  fellow-attor- 
neys and  among  the  people  at  large,  the  greater 
part  of  whom  were  then  in  favor  of  permitting 
those  who  wished  to  own,  buy  and  sell  negroes  as 
slaves. 

Lincoln  always  sympathized  with  the  poor 
and  down-trodden.  He  could  not  bear  to  charge 
what  his  fellow-lawyers  considered  a  fair  price 
for  the  amount  of  work  and  time  spent  on  a 
case.  He  often  advised  those  who  came  to  him 
to  settle  their  disputes  without  going  to  law. 
Once  he  told  a  man  he  would  charge  him  a  large 
fee  if  he  had  to  try  the  case,  but  if  the  parties  in 
the  dispute  settled  their  difficulty  without  going 
into  court  he  would  furnish  them  all  the  legal 
advice  they  needed  free  of  charge.   Here  is  some 

160 


Abraham  Lincoln 

excellent  counsel  Lawyer  Lincoln  gave,  in  later 
life,  in  an  address  to  a  class  of  young  attor- 
neys : 

*' Discourage  litigation.  Persuade  your  neigh- 
bors to  compromise  whenever  you  can.  Point 
out  to  them  how  the  nominal  winner  is  often  the 
real  loser — in  fees,  expenses  and  waste  of  time. 
As  a  peacemaker  a  lawyer  has  a  superior  oppor- 
tunity of  becoming  a  good  man.  There  will  al- 
ways be  enough  business.  Never  stir  up  litiga- 
tion. A  worse  man  can  scarcely  be  found  than 
one  who  does  this.  Who  can  be  more  nearly  a 
fiend  than  he  who  habitually  overhauls  the 
register  of  deeds  in  search  of  defects  in  titles 
whereon  to  stir  up  strife  and  put  money  in  his 
pocket.  A  moral  tone  ought  to  be  infused  into 
the  profession  which  should  drive  such  men  out 
of  it.'' 

YOUNG  LAWYER  LINCOLN  OFFERS  TO  PAY  HALF  THE 

DAMAGES 

A  wagonmaker  in  Mechaniesville,  near 
Springfield,  was  sued  on  account  of  a  disputed 
bill.  The  other  side  had  engaged  the  best  lawyer 
in  the  place.  The  cartwright  saw  that  his  own 
attorney  would  be  unable  to  defend  the  case  well. 

161 


The  Story  of  Young 

So,  when  the  day  of  the  trial  arrived  he  sent  his 
son-in-law  to  Springfield  to  bring  Mr.  Lincoln 
to  save  the' day  'for  him  if  possible.  He  said  to 
the  messenger : 

''Son,  you've  just  got  time.  Take  this  letter 
to  my  young  friend,  Abe  Lincoln,  and  bring  him 
back  in  the  buggy  to  appear  in  the  case.  Guess 
he'll  come  if  he  can." 

The  young  man  from  Mechanicsville  found  the 
lawj^er  in  the  street  playing  ''knucks"  with  a 
troop  of  children  and  laughing  heartily  at  the 
fun  they  were  all  having.  When  the  note  was 
handed  to  him,  Lincoln  said : 

^'All  right,  wait  a  minute,"  and  the  game  soon 
ended  amid  peals  of  laughter.  Then  the  young 
"lawyer  jumped  into  the  buggy.  On  the  way 
back  Mr.  Lincoln  told  his  companion  such  fuimy 
stories  that  the  young  man,  convulsed  with 
laughter,  was  unable  to  drive.  The  horse,  badly 
broken,  upset  them  into  a  ditch,  smashing  the 
vehicle. 

''You  stay  behind  and  look  after  the  buggy," 
said  the  lawyer.    "I'll  walk  on." 

He  came,  with  long  strides,  into  the  court 
room  just  in  time  for  the  trial  and  won  the  case 
for  the  wagonmaker. 

162 


Abraham  Lincoln 


<<' 


'What  am  I  to  pay  youl"  asked  the  client  de- 
lighted. 

*'I  hope  you  won't  think  ten  or  fifteen  dollars 
too  much,''  said  the  young  attorney,  ''and  I'll 
pay  half  the  hire  of  the  buggy  and  half  the  cost 
of  repairing  it." 

LAWYER  LINCOLN-  AND  MART  OWENS 

About  the  time  Mr.  Lincoln  was  admitted  to 
the  bar,  Miss  Mary  Owens,  a  bright  and  beauti- 
ful young  woman  from  Kentucky,  came  to  visit 
her  married  sister  near  New  Salem.  The  sister 
had  boasted  that  she  was  going  to  ^'make  a 
match"  between  her  sister  and  Lawyer  Lincoln. 
The  newly  admitted  attorney  smiled  indulgently 
at  all  this  banter  until  he  began  to  consider  him- 
self under  obligations  to  marry  Miss  Owens  if 
that  young  lady  proved  willing. 

After  he  went  to  live  in  Springfield,  with  no 
home  but  his  office,  he  wrote  the  young  lady  a 
long,  discouraging  letter,  of  which  this  is  a  part : 

*  'I  am  thinking  of  what  we  said  about 
your  coming  to  live  in  Springfield.  I 
am  afraid  you  would  not  be  satisfied. 
There  is  a  great  deal  of  flourishing 
about  in  carriages  here,  which  it  would 

163 

ti — Lincoln. 


The  Story  of  Young 

be  your  doom  to  see  without  sharing  it. 
You  would  have  to  be  poor  without  the 
means  of  hiding  your  poverty.  Do  you 
believe  that  you  could  bear  that  pa- 
tiently? Whatever  woman  may  cast 
her  lot  with  mine,  should  any  ever  do 
so,  it  is  my  intention  to  do  all  in  my 
power  to  make  her  happy  and  con- 
tented, and  there  is  nothing  I  can 
imagine  that  could  make  me  more  un- 
happy than  to  fail  in  that  effort.  I 
know  I  should  be  much  happier  with 
you  than  the  way  I  am,  provided  I  saw 
no  sign  of  discontent  in  you. 

^'I  much  wish  you  would  think  seri- 
ously before  you  decide.  What  I  have 
said,  I  will  most  positively  abide  by, 
provided  you  wish  it.  You  have  not 
been  accustomed  to  hardship,  and  it 
may  be  more  severe  than  you  now 
imagine.  I  know  you  are  capable  of 
thinking  correctly  on  any  subject,  and 
if  you  deliberate  maturely  upon  this 
before  you  decide,  then  I  am  willing  to 
abide  by  your  decision. 

*^  Yours,  etc., 

'^Lincoln.'' 

For  a  love  letter  this  was  nearly  as  cold  and 
formal  as  a  legal  document.    Miss  Owens  could 

164 


Abraham  Lincoln 

see  well  enough  that  Lawyer  Lincoln  was  not 
much  in  love  with  her,  and  she  let  him  know,  as 
kindly  as  she  could,  that  she  was  not  disposed  to 
cast  her  lot  for  life  with  an  enforced  lover,  as  he 
had  proved  himself  to  be.  She  afterward  con- 
fided to  a  friend  that  ''Mr.  Lincoln  was  deficient 
in  those  little  links  which  make  up  the  chain  of 
a  woman's  happiness.' 


>> 


THE  EARLY  RIVALRY  BETWEEN  LINCOLN  AND 

DOUGLAS 

Soon  after  Mr.  Lincoln  came  to  Springfield  he 
met  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  a  brilliant  little  man 
from  Vermont.  The  two  seemed  naturally  to 
take  opposing  sides  of  every  question.  They 
were  opposite  in  every  way.  Lincoln  was  tall, 
angular  and  awkward.  Douglas  was  small, 
round  and  graceful — he  came  to  be  known  as 
''the  Little  Giant.''  Douglas  was  a  Democrat 
and  favored  slavery.  Lincoln  was  a  Whig,  and 
strongly  opposed  that  dark  institution.  Even  in 
petty  discussions  in  Speed's  store,  the  two  men 
seemed  to  gravitate  to  opposite  sides.  A  little 
later  they  were  rivals  for  the  hand  of  the  same 
young  woman. 

One  night,  in  a  convivial  company,  Mr,  Doug- 

165 


The  Story  of  Young 

las's  attention  was  directed  to  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  neither  smoked  nor  drank.  Considering 
this  a  reflection  upon  his  own  habits,  the  little 
man  sneered : 

^'What,  Mr.  Lincoln,  are  you  a  temperance 
man?'^ 

^^No,"  replied  Lincoln  with  a  smile  full  of 
meaning,  *'I'm  not  exactly  a  temperance  man, 
but  I  am  temperate  in  this,  to  wit: — I  don^t 
drinh!*' 

In  spite  of  this  remark,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  an 
ardent  temperance  man.  One  Washington's 
birthday  he  delivered  a  temperance  address  be- 
for  the  the  Washingtonian  Society  of  Spring- 
field, on  *' Charity  in  Temperance  Reform,"  in 
which  he  made  a  strong  comparison  between  the 
drink  habit  and  black  slavery. 

LOGAN  &  LINCOLN 

In  1841  the  partnership  between  Stuart  and 
Lincoln  was  dissolved  and  the  younger  man  be- 
came a  member  of  the  firm  of  Logan  &  Lincoln. 
This  was  considered  a  long  step  in  advance  for 
the  young  lawyer,  as  Judge  Stephen  T.  Logan 
was  known  as  one  of  the  leading  lawyers  in  the 

166 


Abraham  Lincoln 

State.  From  this  senior  partner  he  learned  to 
make  the  thorough  study  of  his  cases  that 
characterized  his  work  throughout  his  later 
career. 

While  in  partnership  with  Logan,  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  helping  a  young  fellow  named  *' Billy" 
Herndon,  a  clerk  in  his  friend  Speed's  store,  ad- 
vising him  in  his  law  studies  and  promising  to 
give  the  youth  a  place  in  his  o^vn  office  as  soon  as 
young  Herndon  should  be  fitted  to  fill  it. 

WHAT  LINCOLN  DID  WITH  HIS  FIRST  FIVE  HUNDRED 

DOLLAR  FEE 

During  the  interim  between  two  partnerships, 
after  he  had  left  Major  Stuart,  and  before  he 
went  into  the  office  with  Logan,  Mr.  Lincoln  con- 
ducted a  case  alone.  He  worked  very  hard  and 
made  a  brilliant  success  of  it,  winning  the  verdict 
and  a  five  hundred  dollar  fee.  When  an  old  law- 
yer friend  called  on  him,  Lincoln  had  the  money 
spread  out  on  the  table  counting  it  over. 

Look  here,  judge,"  said  the  young  lawyer. 

See  what  a  heap  of  money  I've  got  from  that 
case.  Did  you  ever  see  anything  like  it  ?  Why, 
I  never  in  my  life  had  so  much  money  all  at 
once!" 

167 


The  Story  of  Young 

Then  his  manner  changed,  and  crossing  his 
long  arms  on  the  table  he  said : 

*'I  have  got  just  five  hundred  dollars;  if  it 
were  only  seven  hundred  and  fifty  I  would  go 
and  buy  a  quarter  section  (160  acres)  of  land 
and  give  it  to  my  old  stepmother. '^ 

The  friend  offered  to  lend  him  the  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  dollars  needed.  While  drawing  up 
the  necessary  papers,  the  old  judge  gave  the 
young  lawyer  this  advice : 

'* Lincoln,  I  wouldn't  do  it  quite  that  way. 
Your  stepmother  is  getting  old,  and,  in  all  prob- 
ability, will  not  live  many  years.  I  would  settle 
the  property  upon  her  for  use  during  her  life- 
time, to  revert  to  you  upon  her  death." 

**I  shall  do  no  such  thing,"  Lincoln  replied 
with  deep  feeling.  ''It  is  a  poor  return,  at  best, 
for  all  the  good  woman's  devotion  to  me,  and 
there  is  not  going  to  be  any  half-way  business 
about  it." 

The  dutiful  stepson  did  as  he  planned.  Some 
years  later  he  was  obliged  to  wi'ite  to  John 
Jolmston,  his  stepmother's  son,  appealing  to 
him  not  to  try  to  induce  his  mother  to  sell  the 
land  lest  the  old  woman  should  lose  the  support 
he  had  provided  for  her  in  her  declining  years. 

168 


Abraham  Lincoln 

IN  LOVE  WITH  A  BELLE  FROM  LOUISVILLE 

Lincoln's  popularity  in  Sangamon  County,  al- 
ways increasing,  was  greatly  strengthened  by 
the  part  he  had  taken  in  the  removal  of  the  cap- 
ital to  Springfield,  which  was  the  county  seat  as 
well  as  the  State  capital.  So  he  was  returned  to 
the  Legislature,  now  held  in  Springfield,  time 
after  time,  without  further  effort  on  his  part. 
He  was  looked  upon  as  a  young  man  with  a  great 
future.  While  he  was  in  the  office  with  Major 
Stuart  that  gentleman's  cousin.  Miss  Mary 
Todd,  a  witty,  accomplished  young  lady  from 
Louisville,  Kentucky,  came  to  Springfield  to 
visit  her  sister,  wife  of  Ninian  W.  Edwards,  one 
of  the  ''Long  Nine"  in  the  State  Assembly. 

Miss  Todd  was  brilliant  and  gay,  a  society  girl 
— in  every  way  the  opposite  of  Mr.  Lincoln — 
and  he  was  charmed  with  everything  she  said 
and  did.  Judge  Douglas  was  one  of  her  numer- 
ous admirers,  and  it  is  said  that  the  Louisville 
belle  was  so  flattered  by  his  attentions  that  she 
was  in  doubt,  for  a  time,  which  suitor  to  accept. 
She  was  an  ambitious  young  woman,  having 
boasted  from  girlhood  that  she  would  one  day  be 
mistress  of  the  White  House. 

To  all  appearances  Douglas  was  the  more 

169 


The  Story  of  Young 

likely  to  fulfill  Miss  Todd's  high  ambition.  He 
was  a  society  man,  witty  in  conversation,  popu- 
lar with  women  as  well  as  with  men,  and  had 
been  to  Congress,  so  he  had  a  national  reputa- 
tion, while  Lincoln's  was  only  local,  or  at  most 
confined  to  Sangamon  County  and  the  Eighth 
Judicial  Circuit  of  Illinois. 

But  Mr.  Douglas  was  already  addicted  to 
drink,  and  Miss  Todd  saw  doubtless  that  he 
could  not  go  on  long  at  the  rapid  pace  he  was 
keeping  up.  It  is  often  said  that  she  was  in 
favor  of  slavery,  as  some  of  her  relatives  who 
owned  slaves,  years  later,  entered  the  Confed- 
erate ranks  to  fight  against  the  Union.  But  the 
remarkable  fact  that  she  finally  chose  Lincoln 
shows  that  her  sympathies  were  against  slavery, 
and  she  thus  cut  herself  off  from  several  mem- 
bers of  her  own  family.  With  a  woman's  intui- 
tion she  saw  the  true  worth  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
and  before  long  they  were  understood  to  be  en- 
gaged. 

But  the  young  lawyer,  after  his  recent  experi- 
ence with  Mary  Owens,  distrusted  his  ability  to 
make  any  woman  happy — much  less  the  belle 
from  Louisville,  so  brilliant,  vivacious,  well  edu- 
cated and  exacting.    He  seemed  to  grow  mor- 

170 


Abraliam  Lincoln 

bidly  conscious  of  his  shortcomings,  and  she  was 
high-strung.  A  misunderstanding  arose,  and, 
between  such  exceptional  natures,  *Hhe  course  of 
true  love  never  did  run  smooth.'* 

Their  engagement,  if  they  were  actually  be- 
trothed, was  broken,  and  the  lawyer-lover  was 
plunged  in  deep  melancholy.  He  wrote  long, 
morbid  letters  to  his  friend  Speed,  who  had  re- 
turned to  Kentucky,  and  had  recently  married 
there.  Lincoln  even  went  to  Louisville  to  visit 
the  Speeds,  hoping  that  the  change  of  scene  and 
friendly  sympathies  and  counsel  would  revive 
his  health  and  spirits. 

In  one  of  his  letters  Lincoln  bemoaned  his  sad 
fate  and  referred  to  *Hhe  fatal  1st  of  January,'' 
probabty  the  date  when  his  engagement  or  'Hhe 
understanding"  with  Mary  Todd  was  broken. 
From  this  expression,  one  of  Lincoln's  biogra- 
phers elaborated  a  damaging  fiction,  stating  that 
Lincoln  and  his  affianced  were  to  have  been  mar- 
ried that  day,  that  the  wedding  supper  was 
ready,  that  the  bride  was  all  dressed  for  the  cere- 
mony, the  guests  assembled — but  the  melancholy 
bridegroom  failed  to  come  to  his  own  wed- 
ding! 

If  such  a  thing  had  happened  in  a  little  town 

171 


The  Story  of  Young 

like  Springfield  in  those  days,  the  guests  would 
have  told  of  it,  and  everybody  would  have  gos- 
siped about  it.  It  would  have  been  a  nine  days' 
wonder,  and  such  a  great  joker  as  Lincoln  would 
''never  have  heard  the  last  of  it." 

THE   STRANGE   EVENTS   LEADING   TIP    TO   LINCOLN'S 

MARRIAGE 

After  Lincoln's  return  from  visiting  the 
Speeds  in  Louisville,  he  threw  himself  into  poli- 
tics again,  not,  however,  in  his  own  behalf.  He 
declined  to  be  a  candidate  again  for  the  State 
Legislature,  in  which  he  had  served  four  con- 
secutive terms,  covering  a  period  of  eight  years. 
He  engaged  enthusiastically  in  the  ''Log  Cabin" 
campaign  of  1840,  when  the  country  went  for 
"Tippecanoe  and  Tyler,  too,"  which  means  that 
General  William  Henry  Harrison,  the  hero  of 
the  battle  of  Tippecanoe,  and  John  Tyler  were 
elected  President  and  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States. 

In  1842  the  young  lawyer  had  so  far  recovered 
from  bodily  illness  and  mental  unliappiness  as 
to  write  more  cheerful  letters  to  his  friend 
Speed  of  which  two  short  extracts  follow : 

"It  seems  to  me  that  I  should  have  been  en- 

172 


Abraham  Lincoln 

tirely  liappy  but  for  the  never-absent  idea  that 
there  is  one  (Miss  Todd)  still  unhappy  whom  I 
have  contributed  to  make  so.  That  still  kills  my 
soul.  I  cannot  but  reproach  myself  for  even 
wishing  to  be  happy  while  she  is  otherwise.  She 
accompanied  a  large  party  on  the  railroad  cars 
to  Jacksonville  last  Monday,  and  at  her  return 
spoke,  so  I  heard  of  it,  of  having  'enjoyed  the 
trip  exceedingly. '    God  be  praised  for  that. ' 


jy 


<<" 


'You  will  see  by  the  last  Sangamon  Journal 
that  I  made  a  temperance  speech  on  the  22d  of 
February,  which  I  claim  that  Fanny  and  you 
shall  read  as  an  act  of  charity  toward  me ;  for  I 
cannot  learn  that  anybody  has  read  it  or  is  likely 
to.  Fortunately  it  is  not  long,  and  I  shall  deem 
it  a  sufficient  compliance  with  my  request  if  one 
of  you  listens  while  the  other  reads  it.'' 

Early  the  following  summer  Lincoln  wrote  for 
the  Sangamon  Journal  a  humorous  criticism  of 
State  Auditor  Shields,  a  vain  and  *Houchy" 
little  man.  This  was  in  the  form  of  a  story  and 
signed  by  ''Rebecca  of  the  Lost  Townships." 
The  article  created  considerable  amusement  and 
might  have  passed  unnoticed  by  the  conceited 
little  auditor  if  it  had  not  been  followed  by  an- 

173 


The  Story  of  Young 

other,  less  humorous,  but  more  personal  and 
satirical,  signed  in  the  same  way,  but  the  second 
communication  was  written  by  two  mischievous 
(if  not  malicious)  girls — Mary  Todd  and  her 
friend,  Julia  Jayne.  This  stinging  attack  made 
Shields  wild  with  rage,  and  he  demanded  the 
name  of  the  writer  of  it.  Lincoln  told  the  editor 
to  give  Shields  his  name  as  if  he  had  written  both 
contributions  and  thus  protect  the  two  young 
ladies.  The  auditor  then  challenged  the  lawyer 
to  fight  a  duel.  Lincoln,  averse  to  dueling,  chose 
absurd  weapons,  imposed  ridiculous  conditions 
and  tried  to  treat  the  whole  affair  as  a  huge  joke. 
When  the  two  came  face  to  face,  explanations 
became  possible  and  the  ludicrous  duel  was 
avoided.  Lincoln's  conduct  throughout  this  hu- 
miliating affair  plainly  showed  that,  while 
Shields  would  gladly  have  killed  Jiim^  he  had  no 
intention  of  injuring  the  man  who  had  chal- 
lenged him. 

Mary  Todd's  heart  seems  to  have  softened 
toward  the  young  man  who  was  willing  to  risk 
his  life  for  her  sake,  and  the  pair,  after  a  long 
and  miserable  misunderstanding  on  both  sides, 
were  happily  married  on  the  4th  of  November, 
1842.    Their  wedding  ceremony  was  the  first  ever 

174 


Abraham  Lincoln 

performed  in  Springfield  by  the  use  of  the  Epis- 
copal ritual. 

When  one  of  the  guests,  bluff  old  Judge  Tom 
Brown,  saw  the  bridegroom  placing  the  ring  on 
Miss  Todd's  finger,  and  repeating  after  the  min- 
ister, ^'With  this  ring" — ''I  thee  wed" — *'and 
with  all" — *'my  worldly  goods" — ''I  thee  en- 
dow"— ^he  exclaimed,  in  a  stage  whisper : 

*' Grace  to  Goshen,  Lincoln,  the  statute  fixes 
all  that!" 

In  a  letter  to  Speed,  not  long  after  this  event, 
the  happy  bridegroom  wrote : 

*'We  are  not  keeping  house  but  boarding  at 
the  Globe  Tavern,  which  is  very  well  kept  now 
by  a  widow  lady  of  the  name  of  Beck.  Our  rooms 
are  the  same  Dr.  Wallace  occupied  there,  and 
boarding  only  costs  four  dollars  a  week  (for  the 
two).  I  most  heartily  wish  you  and  your  family 
will  not  fail  to  come.  Just  let  us  know  the  time, 
a  week  in  advance,  and  we  will  have  a  room  pre- 
pared for  you  and  we  '11  all  be  merry  together  for 
a  while." 


175 


The  Story  of  Young 


CHAPTER  XV 


Lincoln  &  Herndon 


YOUNG  HERNDON'S  STRANGE  FASCINATION  FOR 

LINCOLN 

Lincoln  remained  in  the  office  with  Judge 
Logan  about  four  years,  dissolving  partnership 
in  1845.  Meanwhile  he  was  interesting  himself 
in  behalf  of  young  William  H.  Herndon,  who, 
after  Speed's  removal  to  Kentucky,  had  gone  to 
college  at  Jacksonville,  111.  The  young  man 
seemed  to  be  made  of  the  right  kind  of  metal,  was 
industrious,  and  agreeable,  and  Mr.  Lincoln 
looked  forward  to  the  time  when  he  could  have 
*' Billy"  with  him  in  a  business  of  his  own. 

Mrs.  Lincoln,  with  that  marvelous  instinct 
which  women  often  possess,  opposed  her  hus- 
band's taking  Bill  Herndon  into  partnership. 
While  the  young  man  was  honest  and  capable 
enough,  he  was  neither  brilliant  nor  steady.  He 
contracted  the  habit  of  drinking,  the  bane  of  Lin- 
coln's business  career.  As  Mr.  Lincoln  had  not 
yet  paid  of^  *Hhe  national  debt"  largely  due  to 

176 


Abraham  Lincoln 

his  first  business  partner's  drunkenness,  it  seems 
rather  strange  that  he  did  not  listen  to  his  wife's 
admonitions.  But  young  Herndon  seems  always 
to  have  exercised  a  strange  fascination  over  his 
older  friend  and  partner. 

While  yet  in  partnership  with  Judge  Logan, 
Mr.  Lincoln  went  into  the  national  campaign  of 
1844,  making  speeches  in  Illinois  and  Indiana 
for  Henry  Clay,  to  whom  he  was  thoroughly  de- 
voted. 

Before  this  campaign  Lincoln  had  written  to 
Mr.  Speed: 

*^We  had  a  meeting  of  the  Whigs  of  the 
county  here  last  Monday  to  appoint  delegates  to 
a  district  convention;  and  Baker  beat  me,  and 
got  the  delegation  instructed  to  go  for  him.  The 
meeting,  in  spite  of  my  attempts  to  decline  it, 
appointed  me  one  of  the  delegates,  so  that  in  get- 
ting Baker  the  nomination  I  shall  be  fixed  like  a 
fellow  who  is  made  a  groomsman  to  a  fellow 
that  has  cut  him  out,  and  is  marrying  his  own 
dear  ^gal.'  " 

Mr.  Lincoln,  about  this  time,  was  offered  the 
nomination  for  Governor  of  Illinois,  and  de- 
clined the  honor.  Mrs.  Lincoln,  who  had  su- 
preme confidence  in  her  husband's  ability,  tried 

177 


The  Story;  of  Young 

to  make  liim  more  self-seeking  in  his  political  ef- 
forts. He  visited  his  old  home  in  Indiana,  mak- 
ing several  speeches  in  that  part  of  the  State.  It 
was  fourteen  years  after  he  and  all  the  family 
had  removed  to  Illinois.  One  of  his  speeches  was 
delivered  from  the  door  of  a  harness  shop  near 
Gentryville,  and  one  he  made  in  the  '^Old  Carter 
Schoolhouse. "  After  this  address  he  drove 
home  with  Mr.  Josiah  Crawford — "Old  Blue 
Nose"  for  whom  he  had  "pulled  fodder"  to  pay 
an  exorbitant  price  for  Weems's  "Life  of  Wash- 
ington," and  in  whose  house  his  sister  and  he 
had  lived  as  hired  girl  and  hired  man.  He  de- 
lighted the  old  friends  by  asking  about  every- 
body, and  being  interested  in  the  "old  swim- 
ming-hole, ' '  Jones 's  grocery  where  he  had  often 
argued  and  "held  forth,"  the  saw-pit,  the  old 
mill,  the  blacksmith  shop,  whose  owner,  Mr. 
Baldwin,  had  told  him  some  of  his  best  stories, 
and  where  he  once  started  in  to  learn  the  black- 
smith's trade.  He  went  around  and  called  on  all 
his  former  acquaintances  who  were  still  living  in 
the  neighborhood.  His  memories  were  so  vivid 
and  his  emotions  so  keen  that  he  "svi'ote  a  long 
poem  about  this,  from  which  the  following  are 
three  stanzas : 

178 


Abraham  Lincoln 

'My  cliildhood's  home  I  see  again 
And  sadder  with  the  view; 

And  still,  as  memory  crowds  the  brain, 
There's  pleasure  in  it,  too. 


a 


Ah,  Memory !  thou  midway  world 

Twixt  earth  and  paradise. 
Where  things  decayed  and  loved  ones  lost 
In  dreamy  shadows  rise. 

And  freed  from  all  that's  earthy,  vile, 
Seems  hallowed,  pure  and  bright, 

Like  scenes  in  some  enchanted  isle, 
All  bathed  in  liquid  light. ' ' 


trtintt  to  save  billy  from  a  bad  habit 

As  Mr.  Lincoln  spent  so  much  of  his  time 
away  from  Springfield  he  felt  that  he  needed  a 
younger  assistant  to  ''keep  office"  and  look  after 
his  cases  in  the  di:fferent  courts.  He  should  not 
have  made  "Billy"  Herndon  an  equal  partner, 
but  he  did  so,  though  the  young  man  had  neither 
the  ability  nor  experience  to  earn  anything  like 
half  the  income  of  the  office.  If  Herndon  had 
kept  sober  and  done  his  best  he  might  have  made 
some  return  for  all  that  Mr.  Lincoln,  who 
treated  him  like  a  foster-father,  was  trying  to 
do  for  him.     But  "Billy"  did  nothing  of  the 

179 

IS — Lincoln,  ' 


The  Story  of  Young 

sort.  He  took  advantage  of  his  senior  partner's 
absences  by  going  on  sprees  with  several  dissi- 
pated young  men  about  town. 

WHAT  LAWYER  LINCOLN"  DID  ^Y1T^B:  A  FAT  FEE 

A  Springfield  gentleman  relates  the  following 
story  which  shows  Lawyer  Lincoln's  business 
methods,  his  unwillingness  to  charge  much  for 
his  legal  services ;  and  his  great  longing  to  save 
his  young  partner  from  the  clutches  of  drink : 

**My  father,"  said  the  neighbor,  ''was  in  busi- 
ness, facing  the  square,  not  far  from  the  Court 
House.  He  had  an  accomit  with  a  man  who 
seemed  to  be  doing  a  good,  straight  business  for 
years,  but  the  fellow  disappeared  one  night, 
owing  father  about  $1000.  Time  went  on  and 
father  got  no  trace  of  the  vanished  debtor.  He 
considered  the  accomit  as  good  as  lost. 

"But  one  dav,  in  connection  with  other  busi- 
ness,  he  told  Mr.  Lincoln  he  would  give  him  half 
of  what  he  could  recover  of  that  bad  debt.  The 
tall  attorney's  deep  gray  eyes  twinkled  as  he 
said,  'One-half  of  nought  is  nothing.  I'm 
neither  a  shark  nor  a  shyster,  Mr.  Man.  If  I 
should  collect  it,  I  would  accept  only  my  regular 
percentage.' 

180 


Abraham  Lincoln 


ii  <- 


'But  I  mean  it/  father  said  earnestly.  *I 
should  consider  it  as  good  as  finding  money  in 
the  street.' 

"  ^And  ^Hhe  finder  will  be  liberally  re- 
warded," ehV  said  Mr.  Lincoln  with  a  laugh. 

**  *Yes/  my  father  replied,  'that's  about  the 
size  of  it;  and  I'm  glad  if  you  understand  it. 
The  members  of  the  bar  here  grumble  because 
you  charge  too  little  for  your  professional  serv- 
ices, and  I'm  willing  to  do  my  share  toward  ed- 
ucating you  in  the  right  direction.' 

'^  'Well,  seein'  as  it's  you,'  said  Mr.  Lincoln 
with  a  whimsical  smile,  'considering  that  you're 
such  an  intimate  friend,  I'd  do  it  for  twice  as 
much  as  I'd  charge  a  total  stranger!  Is  that 
satisfactory?' 

"  'I  should  not  be  satisfied  with  giving  you 
less  than  half  the  gross  amount  collected — iji( 
this  case,'  my  father  insisted.  'I  don't  see  why 
you  are  so  loath  to  take  what  is  your  due,  Mr. 
Lincoln.  You  have  a  family  to  support  and  will 
have  to  provide  for  the  future  of  several  boys. 
They  need  money  and  are  as  worthy  of  it  as  any 
other  man's  wife  and  sons.' 

"Mr.  Lincoln  put  out  his  big  bony  hand  as  if 
to  ward  off  a  blow,  exclaiming  in  a  pained  tone : 

181 


The  Story  of  Young 

"  ^That  isn't  it,  Mr.  Man.  That  isn't  it.  I 
yield  to  no  man  in  love  to  my  wife  and  babies, 
and  I  provide  enough  for  them.  Most  of  those 
who  bring  their  cases  to  me  need  the  money  more 
than  I  do.  Other  lawyers  rob  them.  They  act 
like  a  pack  of  wolves.  They  have  no  mercy.  So 
when  a  needy  fellow  comes  to  me  in  his  trouble 
— sometimes  it's  a  poor  widow — I  can't  take 
much  from  them.  I'm  not  much  of  a  Shylock. 
I  always  try  to  get  them  to  settle  it  without  go- 
ing into  court.  I  tell  them  if  they  will  make  it 
up  among  themselves  I  won't  charge  them  any- 
thing. ' 

^'  'Well,  Mr.  Lincoln,'  said  father  with  a 
laugh,  'if  they  were  all  like  you  there  would  be 
no  need  of  lawyers.' 

''  'Well,'  exclaimed  Lawyer  Lincoln  with  a 
quizzical  inflection  which  meant  much.  'Look 
out  for  the  millennium,  Mr.  Man — still,  as  a 
great  favor,  I'll  charge  you  a  fat  fee  if  I  ever 
find  that  fellow  and  can  get  anything  out  of  him. 
But  that's  like  promising  to  give  you  half  of  the 
first  dollar  I  find  floating  up  the  Sangamon  on  a 
grindstone,  isn't  it  ?  I'll  take  a  big  slice,  though, 
out  of  the  grindstone  itself,  if  you  say  so,'  and 
the  tall  attorney  went  out  with  the  peculiar 

182 


Abraham  Lincoln 

laugh    that    afterward    became    world-famous. 

''Not  long  afterward,  while  in  Bloomington, 
out  on  the  circuit,  Mr.  Lincoln  ran  across  the 
man  who  had  disappeared  from  Springfield  'be- 
tween two  days,'  carrying  on  an  apparently 
prosperous  business  under  an  assumed  name. 
Following  the  man  to  his  office  and  managing  to 
talk  with  him  alone,  the  lawyer,  by  means  of 
threats,  made  the  man  go  right  to  the  bank  and 
draw  out  the  whole  thousand  then.  It  meant 
payment  in  full  or  the  penitentiary.  The  man 
understood  it  and  went  white  as  a  sheet.  In  all 
his  sympathy  for  the  poor  and  needy,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln had  no  pity  on  the  flourishing  criminal. 
Money  could  not  purchase  the  favor  of  Lincoln. 

"Well,  I  hardly  know  which  half  of  that  thou- 
sand dollars  father  was  gladder  to  get,  but  I 
honestly  believe  he  was  more  pleased  on  Mr. 
Lincoln's  accomit  than  on  his  own. 

"  'Let  me  give  you  your  five  hundred  dollars 
before  I  change  my  mind,'  he  said  to  the  attor- 
ney. 

"  'One  hundred  dollars  is  all  I'll  take  out  of 
that,'  Mr.  Lincoln  replied  emphatically.  'It  was 
no  trouble,  and — and  I  haven't  earned  even  that 
much. ' 

183 


The  Story  of  Young 

*^  'But  Mr.  Lincoln,'  my  father  demurred, 
'you  promised  to  take  half.' 

''  'Yes,  but  you  got  my  word  under  false  pre- 
tenses, as  it  were.  N'either  of  us  had  the  least 
idea  I  would  collect  the  bill  even  if  I  ever  found 
the  fellow.' 

"As  he  would  not  accept  more  than  one  hun- 
dred dollars  that  day,  father  wouldn't  give  him 
any  of  the  money  due,  for  fear  the  too  scrupu- 
lous attorney  would  give  him  a  receipt  in  full  for 
collecting.  Finally,  Mr.  Lincoln  went  away 
after  yielding  enough  to  say  he  might  accept  two 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  sometime  in  a  pinch 
of  some  sort. 

"The  occasion  was  not  long  delayed — but  it 
was  not  because  of  illness  or  any  special  neces- 
sity in  his  own  family.  His  young  partner, 
'Billy'  Herndon,  had  been  carousing  with  sev- 
eral of  his  cronies  in  a  saloon  around  on  Fourth 
Street,  and  the  gang  had  broken  mirrors,  de- 
canters and  other  things  in  their  drunken  spree. 
The  proprietor,  tired  of  such  work,  had  had 
them  all  arrested. 

"Mr.  Lincoln,  always  alarmed  when  Billy 
failed  to  appear  at  the  usual  hour  in  the  morn- 
ing, went  in  search  of  him,  and  found  him  and 

184 


Abraham  Lincoln 

his  partners  in  distress,  locked  up  in  the  cala- 
boose. The  others  were  helpless,  unable  to  pay 
or  to  promise  to  pay  for  any  of  the  damages,  so 
it  devolved  on  Mr.  Lincoln  to  raise  the  whole 
two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  the  angry  saloon 
keeper  demanded. 

^'He  came  into  our  office  out  of  breath  and 
said  sheepishly : 

'I  reckon  I  can  use  that  two-fifty  now.' 
'Check  or  currency?'  asked  father. 
'Currency,  if  you've  got  it  handy.' 
'Give  Mr.  Lincoln  two  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars, '  father  called  to  a  clerk  in  the  office. 

''There  was  a  moment's  pause,  during  which 
my  father  refrained  from  asking  any  questions, 
and  Mr.  Lincoln  was  in  no  mood  to  give  informa- 
tion. As  soon  as  the  money  was  brought,  the  tall 
attorney  seized  the  bills  and  stalked  out  without 
counting  it  or  saying  anything  but  'Thankee, 
Mr.  Man,'  and  hurried  diagonally  across  the 
square  toward  the  Court  House,  clutching  the 
precious  banknotes  in  his  bony  talons. 

"Father  saw  him  cross  the  street  so  fast  that 
the  tails  of  his  long  coat  stood  out  straight  be- 
hind ;  then  go  up  the  Court  House  steps,  two  at 
a  time,  and  disappear. 

185 


The  Story  of  Yomig 

*^We  learned  afterward  what  he  did  with  the 
money.  Of  course,  Bill  Herndon  was  penitent 
and  promised  to  mend  his  ways,  and,  of  course, 
Mr.  Lincoln  believed  him.  He  took  the  money 
very  much  against  his  will,  even  against  his 
principles — thinldng  it  might  save  his  junior 
partner  from  the  drunkard's  grave.  But  the 
heart  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  hoping  against 
hope." 


CHAPTER  XVI 


His  Kindness  of  Heaet 


PUTTING  TWO  YOUNG  BIEDS  BACK  IN  THE  NEST 

Mr.  Lincoln's  tender-heartedness  was  the 
subject  of  much  amusement  among  his  fellow- 
attorneys.  One  day,  while  out  riding  with  sev- 
eral friends,  they  missed  Lincoln.  One  of  them, 
having  heard  the  distressed  cries  of  two  young 
birds  that  had  fallen  from  the  nest,  surmised 
that  this  had  something  to  do  with  Mr.  Lincoln's 
disappearance.  The  man  was  right.  Lincoln 
had  hitched  his  horse  and  climbed  the  fence  into 
the  thicket  where  the  fledglings  were  fluttering 

186 


Abraham  Lincoln 

on  the  ground  in  great  fright.  He  caught  the 
young  birds  and  tenderly  carried  them  about 
until  he  found  their  nest.  Climbing  the  tree  he 
put  the  birdlings  back  where  they  belonged. 

After  an  hour  Mr.  Lincoln  caught  up  with  his 
companions,  who  laughed  at  him  for  what  they 
considered  mere  childishness. 

'* Gentlemen,"  he  said  with  great  earnestness, 
^'you  may  laugh,  but  I  could  not  have  slept  well 
to-night  if  I  had  not  saved  those  birds.  Their 
cries  would  have  rung  in  my  ears." 

EESCUING  A  PIG  STUCK:  IN"  THE  MUD 

Late  one  afternoon  Mr.  Lincoln  was  riding 
along  the  country  road  with  a  group  of  lawyer 
friends  who  were  going  together  from  one  town 
to  another  to  attend  court,  when  they  saw  a  pig 
mired  at  one  side  of  the  way,  squealing  lustily. 
The  men  all  laughed  at  the  ludicrousness  of  its 
plight. 

** Let's  get  the  pig  out  of  there!"  exclaimed 
Lincoln  impulsively. 

This  proposition  was  received  with  jeers  from 
the  rest,  for  thev  well  knew  that  whoever  went 
to  the  pig's  rescue  would  only  get  himself  plas- 
tered with  mud  for  his  pains.    Lincoln  rode  on 

187 


The  Story  of  Young 

with  the  others,  but  that  cry  of  distress  kept 
ringing  in  his  ears,  and  he  found  he  could  not 
go  on.  He  bore  it  as  long  as  he  could,  then 
lagged  behind,  till  his  fellow-travelers  had  gone 
round  a  bend  in  the  road,  then  he  turned  and 
rode  back  as  fast  as  he  could  to  where  the  pig 
was  still  squealing  feebly.  Dismounting,  he  took 
several  rails  from  the  fence,  laid  them  on  the 
ground  beside  the  pig  to  use  in  prying  over. 
Then  he  took  another  rail  and  stuck  the  end  of 
it  deep  into  the  mud,  under  the  struggling  ani- 
mal, and  pried  up,  firmly  but  gently,  until  the 
pig  planted  its  feet  on  the  firm  ground  and  ran 
grunting  away,  without  showing  as  much  grati- 
tude as  the  little  dog  did  when  he  saved  it  from 
being  left  behind,  on  the  way  from  Indiana  to 
Illinois  many  years  before. 

He  knew  the  other  men  would  laugh  at  his 
childish  sentiment  and  his  muddy  clothes,  but  he 
did  not  care,  for  he  had  saved  himself  from 
hearing  a  suffering  animal's  cries  of  distress 
during  the  long,  lonely  nights  afterward. 

CONGRESSMAN"  LIN'COLN 

In  1846  Abraham  Lincoln  was  elected  to  Con- 
gress, defeating  the  Rev.  Peter  Cartwright,  the 

188 


Abraham  Lincoln 

famous  backwoods  preacher,  who  was  elected  to 
the  State  Legislature  fourteen  years  before,  the 
first  time  Lincoln  was  a  candidate  and  the  only 
time  he  was  ever  defeated  by  popular  vote, 
Cartwright  had  made  a  vigorous  canvass,  telling 
the  people  that  Lincoln  was  ^^an  aristocrat  and 
an  atheist."  But,  though  they  had  a  great  re- 
spect for  Peter  Cartwright  and  his  preaching, 
the  people  did  not  believe  all  that  he  said  against 
Lincoln,  and  they  elected  him.  Shortly  after 
this  he  wrote  again  to  Speed : 

*'You,  no  doubt,  assign  the  suspen- 
sion of  our  correspondence  to  the  true 
philosophic  cause;  though  it  must  be 
confessed  bv  both  of  us  that  this  is  a 
rather  cold  reason  for  allowing  such  a 
friendship  as  ours  to  die  out  by  de- 
grees. 

* 'Being  elected  to  Congress,  though  I 
am  very  grateful  to  our  friends  for 
having  done  it,  has  not  pleased  me  as 
much  as  I  expected.' 


>j 


In  the  same  letter  he  imparted  to  his  friend 
some  information  which  seems  to  have  been 
much  more  interesting  to  him  than  being  elected 
to  Congress: 

189 


The  Story  of  Young 


a- 


'  Yfe  have  another  boy,  born  the  10th 
of  March  (1846).  He  is  very  much 
such  a  child  as  Bob  was  at  his  age, 
rather  of  a  longer  order.  Bob  is  'short 
and  low,'  and  I  expect  always  will  be. 
He  talks  very  plainly,  almost  as  plainly 
as  anybody.  Pie  is  quite  smart  enough. 
I  sometimes  fear  he  is  one  of  the  little 
rare-ripe  sort  that  are  smarter  at  five 
than  ever  after. 

* '  Since  I  began  this  letter,  a  messen- 
ger came  to  tell  me  Bob  was  lost;  but 
by  the  time  I  reached  the  house  his 
mother  had  found  him  and  had  him 
whipped,  and  by  now  very  likely  he  has 
run  away  again! 

^' As  ever  yours, 

^'A.  Lincoln".'' 

The  new  baby  mentioned  in  this  letter  was 
Edward,  who  died  in  1850,  before  his  fourth 
birthday.  ''Bob,"  or  Robert,  the  eldest  of  the 
Lincoln's  four  children,  was  born  in  1843.  Will- 
iam, born  in  1850,  died  in  the  White  House.  The 
youngest  was  born  in  1853,  after  the  death  of 
Thomas  Lincoln,  so  he  was  named  for  his  grand- 
father, but  he  was  known  only  by  his  nickname, 
* '  Tad. "    "  Little  Tad  "  w^as  his  father 's  constant 

190 


Abraham  Lincoln 

companion  during  the  terrible  years  of  the  Civil 
War,  especially  after  "Willie's  death,  in  1862. 
''Tad"  became  ''the  child  of  the  nation."  He 
died  in  Chicago,  July  10,  1871,  at  the  age  of 
eighteen,  after  returning  from  Europe  with  his 
widowed  mother  and  his  brother  Robert.  Rob- 
ert has  served  his  country  as  Secretary  of  War 
and  Ambassador  to  the  English  court,  and  is 
recognized  as  a  leader  in  national  affairs. 

When  Lincoln  was  sent  to  the  national  House 
of  Representatives,  Douglas  was  elected  to  the 
Senate  for  the  first  time.  Lincoln  was  the  only 
Whig  from  Illinois.  This  shows  his  great  per- 
sonal popularity.  Daniel  Webster  was  then  liv- 
ing in  the  national  capital,  and  Congressman 
Lincoln  stopped  once  at  Ashland,  Ky.,  on  his 
way  to  Washington  to  visit  the  idol  of  the 
Whigs,  Henry  Clay. 

As  soon  as  Lincoln  was  elected,  an  editor 
wrote  to  ask  him  for  a  biographical  sketch  of 
himself  for  the  "Congressional  Directory." 
This  is  all  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote — in  a  blank  form 
sent  for  the  purpose: 

"Born  February  12,  1809,  in  Hardin  County, 
Kentucky. 

"Education  defective. 

191 


The  Story  of  Young 


a- 


'Profession,  law}^er. 

•Military  service,  captain  of  volunteers  in 
Black  Hawk  War. 

'^ Offices  held:  Postmaster  at  a  very  small 
office ;  four  times  a  member  of  the  Illinois  Legis- 
lature, and  elected  to  the  lower  House  of  the 
next  Congress." 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  in  Congress  while  the  Mexi- 
can War  was  in  progress,  and  there  was  much 
discussion  over  President  Polk's  action  in  de- 
claring that  war. 

As  Mrs.  Lincoln  was  obliged  to  stay  in  Spring- 
field to  care  for  her  two  little  boys.  Congress- 
man Lincoln  lived  in  a  Washington  boarding- 
house.  He  soon  gamed  the  reputation  of  telling 
the  best  stories  at  the  capital.  He  made  a  hu- 
morous speech  on  General  Cass,  comparing  the 
general's  army  experiences  with  his  own  in  the 
Black  Hawk  War.  He  also  drafted  a  bill  to 
abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
which  was  never  brought  to  a  vote.  Most  of  his 
care  seems  to  have  been  for  Billy  Herndon,  who 
wrote  complaining  letters  to  him  about  the  *'old 
men"  in  Springfield  who  were  always  trying  to 
''keep  the  yoimg  men  down."  Here  are  two  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  replies: 

192 


Abraham  Lincoln 

''Washington,  June  22, 1848. 
"Dear  William: 

''Judge  how  heart-rending  it  was  to 
come  to  my  room  and  find  and  read 
your  discouraging  letter  of  the  15th. 
Now,  as  to  the  young  men,  you  must  not 
wait  to  be  brought  forward  by  the  older 
men.  For  instance,  do  you  suppose 
that  I  would  ever  have  got  into  notice  if 
I  had  waited  to  be  hunted  up  and 
pushed  forward  by  older  men?" 

"Dear  William: 

"Your  letter  was  received  last  night. 
The  subject  of  that  letter  is  exceedingly 
painful  to  me;  and  I  cannot  but  think 
that  there  is  some  mistake  in  your  im- 
pression of  the  motives  of  the  old  men. 
Of  coursel  cannot  demonstrate  what  I 
say;  but  I  was  young  once,  and  I  am 
sure  I  was  never  ungenerously  thrust 
back.  I  hardly  know  what  to  say.  The 
way  for  a  young  man  to  rise  is  to  im- 
prove himself  every  way  he  can,  never 
suspecting  that  anybody  wishes  to 
hinder  him.  Allow  me  to  assure  you 
that  suspicion  and  jealousy  never  did 
keep  any  man  in  any  situation.  There 
may  be  sometimes  ungenerous  attempts 
to  keep  a  young  man  down;  and  they 

193 


The  Story  of  Young 

will  succeed,  too,  if  he  allows  his  mind 
to  be  diverted  from  its  true  channel  to 
brood  over  the  attempted  injury.  Cast 
about,  and  see  if  this  feeling  has  not 
injured  every  person  you  have  ever 
Imown  to  fall  into  it. 

*'Now  in  what  I  have  said,  I  am  sure 
you  will  suspect  nothing  but  sincere 
friendship.  I  would  save  you  from  a 
fatal  error.  You  have  been  a  laborious, 
studious  yomig  man.  You  are  far  bet- 
ter informed  on  almost  all  subjects 
than  I  have  ever  been.  You  cannot  fail 
in  any  laudable  object,  unless  you  allow 
.  your  mind  to  be  improperly  directed. 
I  have  somewhat  the  advantage  of  you 
in  the  world's  experience,  merely  by 
being  older ;  and  it  is  this  that  induces 
me  to  advise. 

''Your  friend,  as  ever, 

''A.  Lincoln". '^ 

LAST  DAYS  OF  THOMAS  LINCOLN 

Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  allow  his  name  to  be  used 
as  a  candidate  for  re-election,  as  there  were 
other  men  in  the  congressional  district  who  de- 
served the  honor  of  going  to  Washington  as 
much  as  he.  On  his  way  home  from  Washing- 
ton, after  the  last  session  of  the  Thirtieth  Con- 

194 


Abraham  Lincoln 

gress,  he  visited  New  England,  where  he  made  a 
few  speeches,  and  stopped  at  Niagara  Falls, 
which  impressed  him  so  strongly  that  he  wrote  a 
lecture  on  the  subject. 

After  returning  home  he  made  a  flying  visit  to 
Washington  to  enter  his  patent  steamboat, 
equipped  so  that  it  would  navigate  shallow  west- 
ern rivers.  This  boat,  he  told  a  friend,  "would 
go  where  the  ground  is  a  little  damp.''  The 
model  of  Lincoln's  steamboat  is  one  of  the  sights 
of  the  Patent  Office  to  this  day. 

After  Mr.  Lincoln  had  settled  down  to  his  law 
business,  permanently,  as  he  hoped,  his  former 
fellow-clerk,  William  G.  Greene,  having  busi- 
ness in  Coles  County,  went  to  '^Goosenest  Prai- 
rie" to  call  on  Abe's  father  and  stepmother,  who 
still  lived  in  a  log  cabin.  Thomas  Lincoln  re- 
ceived his  son's  friend  very  hospitably.  During 
the  young  man's  visit,  the  father  reverted  to  the 
old  subject,  his  disapproval  of  his  son's  wasting 
his  time  in  studv.    He  said : 

"I  s'pose  Abe's  still  a-foolin'  hisself  with 
eddication.  I  tried  to  stop  it,  but  he's  got  that 
fool  idee  in  his  head  an'  it  can't  be  got  out.  Now 
I  haint  got  no  eddication,  but  I  git  along  better 
than  if  I  had." 

195 

rj — Lincoln, 


The  Story  of  Young 

Not  long  after  this,  in  1851,  Abraham  learned 
that  his  father  was  very  ill.  As  he  could  not 
leave  Springfield  then,  he  wrote  to  his  step- 
brother (for  Thomas  Lincoln  could  not  read) 
the  following  comforting  letter  to  be  read  to  his 
father : 

*^I  sincerely  hope  father  may  recover  his 
health ;  but  at  all  events,  tell  him  to  remember  to 
call  upon  and  confide  in  our  great  and  merciful 
Maker,  who  will  not  turn  away  from  him  in  any 
extremity.  He  notes  the  fall  of  the  sparrow,  and 
numbers  the  hairs  of  our  heads,  and  He  will  not 
forget  the  dying  man  who  puts  his  trust  in  Him. 
Say  to  him  that,  if  we  could  meet  now,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  it  would  be  more  painful  than 
pleasant,  but  if  it  is  his  lot  to  go  now,  he  will 
soon  have  a  joyful  meeting  with  the  loved  ones 
gone  before,  and  where  the  rest  of  us,  through 
the  mercy  of  God,  hope  ere  long  to  join  them." 

Thomas  Lincoln  died  that  year,  at  the  age  of 
seventy-three. 

A  KIND  BUT  MASTERFUL  LETTER  TO  HIS 
STEPBROTHER 

After  his  father's  death  Abraham  Lincoln 
had,  on  several  occasions,  to  protect  his  step- 

196 


Abraham  Lincoln 

mother  against  the  schemes  of  her  own  lazy, 
good-for-nothing  son.  Here  is  one  of  the  letters 
written,  at  this  time,  to  his  stepbrother,  John 
Johnston : 

''Dear  Brother  :  I  hear  that  you  were  anxious 
to  sell  the  land  where  you  live,  and  move  to 
Missouri.  What  can  you  do  in  Missouri  better 
than  here?  Is  the  land  any  richer?  Can  you 
there,  any  more  than  here,  raise  corn  and  wheat 
and  oats  without  work?  Will  anybody  there, 
any  more  than  here,  do  your  work  for  you  ?  If 
you  intend  to  go  to  work,  there  is  no  better  place 
than  right  where  you  are ;  if  you  do  not  intend 
to  go  to  work,  you  cannot  get  along  anywhere. 
Squirming  and  crawling  about  from  place  to 
place  can  do  no  good.  You  have  raised  no  crop 
this  year,  and  what  you  really  want  is  to  sell  the 
land,  get  the  money  and  spend  it.  Part  with  the 
land  you  have  and,  my  life  upon  it,  you  will 
never  own  a  spot  big  enough  to  bury  you  in. 
Half  you  will  get  for  the  land  you  will  spend  in 
moving  to  Missouri,  and  the  other  half  you  will 
eat  and  drink  and  wear  out,  and  no  foot  of  land 
will  be  bought. 

''Now,  I  feel  that  it  is  my  duty  to  have  no  hand 
in  such  a  piece  of  foolery.    I  feel  it  is  so  even  on 

197 


The  Story  of  Young 

your  own  account,  and  particularly  on  mother's 
account. 

"Now  do  not  misunderstand  this  letter.  I  do 
not  write  it  in  any  unkindness.  I  write  it  in 
order,  if  possible,  to  get  you  to  face  the  truth, 
which  truth  is,  you  are  destitute  because  you 
have  idled  away  your  time.  Your  thousand  pre- 
tenses deceive  nobody  but  yourself.  Go  to  work 
is  the  only  cure  for  your  case.'' 


CHAPTER  XVII 


What  Made  the  Difference  Betaveen  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  and  His  Stepbrother 


These  letters  show  the  wide  difference  be- 
tween the  real  lives  of  two  boys  brought  up  in 
the  same  surroundings,  and  under  similar  con- 
ditions. The  advantages  were  in  John  Johns- 
ton's favor.  He  and  Dennis  Hanks  never  rose 
above  the  lower  level  of  poverty  and  igno- 
rance. John  was  looked  down  upon  by  the 
poor  illiterates  around  him  as  a  lazy,  good- 
for-nothing   fellow,    and   Deimis    Hanlvs    was 

198 


Abraham  Lincoln 

known  to  be  careless  about  telling  the  truth. 

In  speaking  of  the  early  life  of  Abe's  father 
and  mother,  Dennis  threw  in  the  remark  that 
*'the  Hankses  was  some  smarter  than  the  Lin- 
colns."  It  was  not  '* smartness"  that  made  Abe 
Lincoln  grow  to  be  a  greater  man  than  Dennis 
Hanks.  There  are  men  in  Springfield  to-day 
who  say,  ''There  were  a  dozen  smarter  men  in 
this  town  than  Mr.  Lincoln  when  he  happened 
to  be  nominated,  and  peculiar  conditions  pre- 
vailing at  that  time  brought  about  his  election 
to  the  presidency!" 

True  greatness  is  made  of  goodness  rather 
than  smartness.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  honest 
with  himself  while  a  boy  and  a  man,  and  it  was 
''Honest  Abe"  who  became  President  of  the 
United  States.  The  people  loved  him  for  his  big 
heart — because  he  loved  them  more  than  he  loved 
himself  and  they  knew  it.  In  his  second  in- 
augural address  as  President  he  used  this  ex- 
pression: "With  malice  toward  none,  with  char- 
ity for  all."  This  was  not  a  new  thought,  but  it 
was  full  of  meaning  to  the  country  because  little 
Abe  Lincoln  had  lived  that  idea  all  his  life,  with 
his  own  family,  his  friends,  acquaintances,  and 
employers.    He  became  the  most  beloved  man  in 

199 


The  Stoiy  of  Young 

the  world,  in  his  own  or  any  other  time,  because 
he  himself  loved  everybody. 

Mrs.  Crawford,  the  wife  of  ''Old  Blue  Nose," 
used  to  laugh,  at  the  very  idea  of  Abe  Lincoln 
ever  becoming  President.  Lincoln  often  said  to 
her:  ''I'll  get  ready  and  the  time  will  come." 
He  got  ready  in  his  father's  log  hut  and  when 
the  door  of  opportunity  opened  he  walked  right 
into  the  White  House.  He  "made  himself  at 
home"  there,  because  he  had  only  to  go  on  in 
the  same  way  after  he  became  the  "servant  of 
the  people"  that  he  had  followed  when  he  was 
"Old  Blue  iSTose's"  hired  boy  and  man. 

on:e  paetner  in  the  white  house,  the  other  in 

THE  POOR  house 

Then  there  was  William  F.  Herndon,  known 
to  the  world  only  because  he  happened  to  be 
' '  Lincoln 's  law  partner. ' '  His  advantages  were 
superior  to  those  of  Lincoln's.  More  than  that, 
he  had  his  great  partner's  help  to  push  him  for- 
ward and  upward.  But  "poor  Billy"  had  an 
unfortunate  appetite.  He  could  not  deny  him- 
self, though  it  always  made  him  ashamed  and 
miserable.  It  dragged  him  down,  down  from 
"the  President's  partner"  to  the  gutter.    That 

200 


Abraham  Lincoln 

was  not  all.  When  he  asked  his  old  partner  to 
give  him  a  government  appointment  which  he 
had,  for  years,  been  making  himself  wholly  un- 
worthy to  fill.  President  Lincoln,  much  as  he  had 
loved  Billy  all  along,  could  not  give  it  to  him. 
It  grieved  Mr.  Lincoln's  great  heart  to  refuse 
Billy  anything.  But  Herndon  did  not  blame 
himself  for  all  that.  He  spent  the  rest  of  his 
wretched  life  in  bitterness  and  spite — avenging 
himself  on  his  noble  benefactor  by  putting  un- 
truths into  the  "Life  of  Lincoln"  he  was  able  to 
write  because  Abraham  Lincoln,  against  the  ad- 
vice of  his  wife  and  friends,  had  insisted  on 
keeping  him  close  to  his  heart.  It  is  a  terrible 
thing — that  spirit  of  spite !  Among  many  good 
and  true  things  he  had  to  say  about  his  fatherly 
law  partner,  he  poisoned  the  good  name  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  in  the  minds  of  millions,  by  writing 
stealthy  slander  about  Lincoln's  mother  and 
wife,  and  made  many  people  believe  that  the 
most  religious  of  men  at  heart  was  an  infidel 
(because  he  himself  was  one!),  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
sometimes  acted  from  unworthy  and  unpatriotic 
motives,  and  that  he  failed  to  come  to  his  own 
wedding.  If  these  things  had  been  true  it  would 
have  been  wrong  to  publish  them  to  the  preju- 

201 


The  Story  of  Young 

dice  of  a  great  man's  good  name — then  how 
much  more  wicked  to  invent  and  spread  broad- 
cast falsehoods  which  hurt  the  heart  and  in- 
jured the  mind  of  the  whole  world — and  just  to 
spite  the  memory  of  the  best  friend  a  man  ever 
had !  The  fate  of  the  firm  of  Lincoln  &  Herndon 
shows  in  a  striking  way  how  the  world  looks 
upon  the  heart  that  hates  and  the  heart  that 
loves,  for  the  hateful  junior  partner  died  miser- 
ably in  an  almshouse,  while  the  senior  partner 
was  crowned  with  immortal  martyrdom  in  the 
White  House. 

HOLDING  THE  PRESIDENT'S  HAT 

There  was  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  also,  ^'the 
Little  Giant,"  who  laughed  and  sneered  at  yomig 
Lincoln.  Brilliant  and  resourceful,  he  always 
kept  ahead  of  his  big,  plodding  opponent.  Doug- 
las was  a  great  and  successful  politician,  but  he 
was  not  honest  with  himself — that  is,  he  was  not 
sincere  through  and  through.  He  held  certain 
opinions  because  he  thought  they  would  make 
him  President.  Lincobi  challenged  him  to  de- 
bate certain  questions  before  the  comitry  while 
both  were  candidates  for  the  Senate.  Douglas 
won  the  fight  for  senator  from  Illinois,  but  Lin- 

202 


Abraham  Lincoln 

coin  exposed  his  opponent's  lack  of  sincerity, 
before  the  whole  nation,  and  the  people,  seeing 
the  difference,  made  Lincoln  President  of  the 
United  States. 

When  President  Lincoln  came  forward  to  de- 
liver his  first  inaugural  address,  he  had  his  hat 
in  his  hand.  While  looking  about  for  a  place  to 
put  it  down,  Senator  Douglas,  his  lifelong  oppo- 
nent, sprang  forward  and  took  it,  saying  with  a 
meaning  smile  as  he  did  so : 

''If  I  can't  be  President,  I  can  hold  his  hat!" 
Imagine  Mrs.  Lincoln's  feelings  then!  She 
had  gained  the  goal  of  her  girlhood  ambition, 
she  was  now  ''Mistress  of  the  White  House." 
But  above  all,  she  was  a  devoted  mother.  Be- 
fore the  Lincolns  had  lived  in  the  White  House 
a  year,  Willie  died,  and  the  heart-broken  mother 
never  again  could  go  into  the  room  where  he 
died,  nor  enter  the  beautiful  Blue  Room  where 
his  funeral  had  been  held.  It  is  true  that  great 
sorrows  come  to  mothers  in  humbler  homes,  but 
Mrs.  Lincoln's  greatest  griefs  were  so  sudden 
and  terrible  that  they  unhinged  her  reason.  It 
would  have  been  wonderful  if  she  could  have 
borne  them  all  without  a  breaking  heart  and 
brain. 

203 


The  Story  of  Young 

Abraham  Lincoln's  end  came  as  he  would  have 
had  it  if  he  could  have  chosen — sudden  and  pain- 
less. He  had  been  a  martyr  all  his  life  long,  suf- 
fering with  the  sorrows  of  others.  His  friends 
used  to  say  that,  even  when  he  was  young,  his 
face,  in  unconscious  repose,  was  the  saddest 
thing  they  ever  saw — ''It  would  make  you  cry," 
they  said. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


''No  End  of  a  Boy" 


"The  Story  of  Young  Abraham  Lincoln" 
would  be  incomplete  without  some  insight  into 
the  perfect  boyishness  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States.  When  the  cares  of  State  and  the 
horrors  of  war  had  made  his  homely  yet  beauti- 
ful face  pallid  and  seamed,  till  it  became  a  sen- 
sitive map  of  the  Civil  War,  it  was  said  that  the 
only  times  the  President  was  ever  happy  were 
when  he  was  playing  with  little  Tad. 

He  used  to  carry  the  boy  on  his  shoulder  or 
"pick-a-back,"  cantering  through  the  spacious 

204 


Abraham  Lincoln 

rooms  of  the  Executive  Mansion,  both  yelling 
like  Comanches.  The  little  boy  was  lonely  after 
Willie  died,  and  the  father's  heart  yearned  over 
the  only  boy  left  at  home,  for  Robert  was  at  Har- 
vard until  near  the  close  of  the  war,  when  he  went 
to  the  front  as  an  aide  to  General  Grant.  So 
little  Tad  was  his  father's  most  constant  com- 
panion and  the  President  became  the  boy's  only 
playfellow.  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  a  heart  as  full  of 
faith  as  a  little  child's,  had  always  lived  in 
deep  sympathy  with  the  children,  and  this 
feeling  was  intensified  toward  his  own  off- 
spring. 

When  Abe  Lincoln  was  living  in  New  Salem 
he  distinguished  himself  by  caring  for  the  little 
children — a  thing  beneath  the  dignity  of  the 
other  young  men  of  the  settlement. 

Hannah  Armstrong,  wife  of  the  Clary's  Grove 
bully,  whom  Abe  had  to  ^'lick"  to  a  finish  in 
order  to  establish  himself  on  a  solid  basis  in 
New  Salem  society,  told  how  friendly  their  rela- 
tions became  after  the  thrashing  he  gave  her 
husband : 

"Abe  would  come  to  our  house,  drink  milk, 
eat  mush,  cornbread  and  butter,  bring  the  chil- 
dren candy  and  rock  the  cradle."    (This  seemed 

205 


The  Stoiy  of  Young 

a  strange  thing  to  her.)     ''He  would  nurse 
babies — do  anything  to  accommodate  anybody." 

DEFENDING  THE  LIFE  OF  A  BOY  HE  HAD  ROCKED 

When  Mrs.  Armstrong's  baby  boy  grew  to 
manhood  he  got  into  deep  trouble.  He  was  ar- 
rested for  murder.  His  mother  was  a  poor 
widow  and  had  no  money  to  defend  her  son. 
Lawyer  Lincoln,  then  living  in  Springfield,  and 
known  as  a  successful  jury  pleader,  wrote  and 
offered  his  services  in  behalf  of  the  child  he  had 
rocked,  ''without  money  and  without  price,"  be- 
cause the  mother  had  been  kind  to  him  in  days 
gone  by. 

It  became  a  celebrated  case.  Mr.  Lincoln  se- 
cured his  acquittal  by  showing  that  there  was  a 
conspiracy  on  the  part  of  the  young  man's  ac- 
cusers, one  of  whom  testified  that  he  saw 
"Buck"  Armstrong  strike  the  fatal  blow  by  the 
bright  light  of  the  moon.  Lawyer  Lincoln,  after 
drawing  the  witness  out  and  making  him  de- 
scribe minutely  what  he  had  seen,  suddenly  pro- 
duced an  almanac  proving  that  there  was  no 
moon  in  the  sky  at  that  time ! 

The  tears  of  that  widowed  mother  and  the 
gratitude  of  the  hoy  he  had  rocked  were  the  best 

206 


hi;    VSE.D   TO   CARRY   Till;    BUY   "PICK-A-BACK.' 


Abraham  Lincoln 

sort  of  pay  to  Lawyer  Lincoln  for  an  act  of  kind- 
ness and  life-saving. 

"just  what's  the  matter  with  the  whole 

world!" 

A  Springfield  neighbor  used  to  say  that  it  was 
almost  a  habit  with  Mr.  Lincoln  to  carry  his 
children  about  on  his  shoulders.  Indeed,  the 
man  said  he  seldom  saw  the  tall  lawyer  go  by 
without  one  or  both  boys  perched  on  high  or  tug- 
ging at  the  tails  of  his  long  coat.  This  neighbor 
relates  that  he  was  attracted  to  the  door  of  his 
own  house  one  day  by  a  great  noise  of  crying 
children,  and  saw  Mr.  Lincoln  passing  with  the 
two  boys  in  their  usual  position,  and  both  were 
howling  lustily. 

*'Why,  Mr.  Lincoln,  what's  the  matter?"  he 
asked  in  astonishment. 

"Just  what's  tho  matter  with  the  whole 
world,"  the  lawyer  replied  coolly.  "I've  got 
three  walnuts,  and  each  wants  two." 

the  "bucking"  chess  board 

Several  years  later  Judge  Treat,  of  Spring- 
field was  playing  chess  with  Mr.  Lincoln  in  his 

207 


The  Story  of  Young 

law  office  when  Tad  came  in  to  call  his  father  to 
supper.  The  boy,  impatient  at  the  delay  of  the 
slow  and  silent  game,  tried  to  break  it  up  by  a 
flank  movement  against  the  chess  board,  but  the 
attacks  were  warded  off,  each  time,  by  his 
father's  long  arms. 

The  child  disappeared,  and  when  the  two 
players  had  begun  to  believe  they  were  to  be  per- 
mitted to  end  the  game  in  peace,  the  table  sud- 
denly *' bucked"  and  the  board  and  chessmen 
were  sent  flying  all  over  the  floor. 

Judge  Treat  was  much  vexed,  and  expressed 
impatience,  not  hesitating  to  tell  Mr.  Lincoln 
that  the  boy  ought  to  be  punished  severely. 

Mr.  Lincoln  replied,  as  he  gently  took  down 
his  hat  to  go  home  to  supper : 

'*  Considering  the  position  of  your  pieces, 
judge,  at  the  time  of  the  upheaval,  I  think  you 
have  no  reason  to  complain.'' 

WHEN"  TAD  GOT  A  SPAITKING 

Yet,  indulgent  as  he  was,  there  were  some 
things  Mr.  Lincoln  would  not  allow  even  his 
youngest  child  to  do.  An  observer  who  saw  the 
President-elect  and  his  family  in  their  train  on 
the  way  to  Washington  to  take  the  helm  of  State, 

208 


Abraham  Lincoln 

relates  that  little  Tad  amused  himself  by  raising 
the  car  window  an  inch  or  two  and  trying,  by 
shutting  it  down  suddenly,  to  catch  the  fingers- 
of  the  curious  boys  outside  who  were  holding 
themselves  up  by  their  hands  on  the  window  sill 
of  the  car  to  catch  sight  of  the  new  President 
and  his  family. 

The  President-elect,  who  had  to  go  out  to  the 
platform  to  make  a  little  speech  to  a  crowd  at 
nearly  every  stop,  noticed  Tad's  attempts  to 
pinch  the  boys'  fingers.  He  spoke  sharply  to  his 
son  and  commanded  him  to  stop  that.  Tad 
obeyed  for  a  time,  but  his  father,  catching  him 
at  the  same  trick  again,  leaned  over,  and  taking 
the  little  fellow  across  his  knee,  gave  him  a  good, 
sound  spanking,  exclaiming  as  he  did  so : 

<<Why  do  you  want  to  mash  those  boys'  fin- 
gers'?" 


THE  TRUE  STORY  OF  BOB's  LOSING  THE  INAUGURAL 

ADDRESS 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  always  lenient  when  the  of- 
fense was  against  himself.  The  Hon.  Robert 
Todd  Lincoln,  the  only  living  son  of  the  great 
President,  tells  how  the  satchel  containing  his 
father's  inaugural  address  was  lost  for  a  time. 

209 


The  Story;  of  Young 

Some  writers  have  related  the  story  of  this  loss, 
stating  that  it  all  happened  at  Harrisburg,  and 
telling  how  the  President-elect  discovered  a  bag 
like  his  own,  and  on  opening  it  found  only  a 
pack  of  greasy  cards,  a  bottle  of  whisky  and  a 
soiled  paper  collar.  Also  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
''reminded"  of  a  cheap,  ill-fitting  story — but 
none  of  these  things  really  took  place. 

Here  is  the  true  story,  as  related  to  the  writer 
by  Robert  Lincoln  himself : 

*'My  father  had  confided  to  me  the  care  of  the 
satchel  containing  his  inaugural  address.  It  was 
lost  for  a  little  while  during  the  stay  of  our  party 
at  the  old  Bates  House  in  Indianapolis.  When 
we  entered  the  hotel  I  set  the  bag  down  with  the 
other  luggage,  which  was  all  removed  to  a  room 
back  of  the  clerk's  desk. 

''As  soon  as  I  missed  the  valise  I  went  right 
to  father,  in  great  distress  of  mind.  He  ordered 
a  search  made.  We  were  naturally  much 
alarmed,  for  it  was  the  only  copy  he  had  of  his 
inaugural  address,  which  he  had  carefully  writ- 
ten before  leaving  Springfield.  Of  course,  he 
added  certain  parts  after  reaching  Washington. 
The  missing  bag  was  soon  found  in  a  safe  place. 

"Instead  of  taking  out  the  precious  manu- 

210 


Abraham  Lincoln 

script  and  stuffing  it  into  his  own  pocket,  father 
handed  it  right  back  to  me,  saying : 

*'  'There,  Bob,  see  if  you  can't  take  better  care 
of  it  this  time' — and  you  may  be  sure  I  was  true 
to  the  trust  he  placed  in  me.  Why,  I  hardly  let 
that  precious  gripsack  get  out  of  my  sight  dur- 
ing my  waking  hours  all  the  rest  of  the  long 
roundabout  journey  to  Washington. '^ 

THE  TERRIBLE  LONELINESS  AFTER  WILLIE  DIED 

The  death  of  Willie,  who  was  nearly  three 
years  older  than  Tad,  early  in  1862,  during  their 
first  year  in  the  White  House,  nearly  broke  his 
father's  heart.  It  was  said  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
never  recovered  from  that  bereavement.  It 
made  him  yearn  the  more  tenderly  over  his 
youngest  son  who  sadly  missed  the  brother  who 
had  been  his  constant  companion. 

It  was  natural  for  a  lad  who  was  so  much  in- 
dulged to  take  advantage  of  his  freedom.  Tad 
had  a  slight  impediment  in  his  speech  which 
made  the  street  urchins  laugh  at  him,  and  even 
cabinet  members,  because  they  could  not  under- 
stand him,  considered  him  a  little  nuisance.  So 
Tad,  though  known  as  ''the  child  of  the  nation," 
and  greatly  beloved  and  petted  by  those  who 

211 

14 — Lincoln. 


The  Story  of  Young 

knew  him  for  a  lovable  affectionate  child,  found 
himself  alone  in  a  class  by  himself,  and  against 
all  classes  of  people. 

TURNING  THE  HOSE  ON  HIGH  OFFICIALS 

He  illustrated  this  spirit  one  day  by  getting 
hold  of  the  hose  and  turning  it  on  some  dignified 
State  officials,  several  army  officers,  and  finally 
on  a  soldier  on  guard  who  was  ordered  to  charge 
and  take  possession  of  that  water  battery.  Al- 
though that  little  escapade  appealed  to  the  Pres- 
ident's sense  of  humor,  for  he  himself  liked 
nothing  better  than  to  take  generals  and  pom- 
pous officials  down  "a  peg  or  two,"  Tad  got  well 
spanked  for  the  havoc  he  wi'ought  that  day. 

BREAKING  INTO  A  CABINET   MEETING 

The  members  of  the  President's  cabinet  had 
reason  to  be  amioyed  by  the  boy's  frequent  in- 
terruptions. He  seemed  to  have  the  right  of 
way  wherever  his  father  happened  to  be.  No 
matter  if  Senator  Sunmer  or  Secretary  Stanton 
was  discussing  some  weighty  matter  of  State  or 
war,  if  Tad  came  in,  his  father  turned  from  the 
men  of  high  estate  to  minister  to  the  wants  of  his 
little  boy.    He  did  it  to  get  rid  of  him,  for  of 

212 


Abraham  Lincoln 

course  he  knew  Tad  would  raise  such  a  racket 
that  no  one  could  talk  or  think  till  his  wants 
were  disposed  of. 

AN  EXECUTIVE  ORDER  ON  THE  COMMISSARY  DEPART- 
MENT FOR  TAD  AND  HIS  BOY  FRIENDS 

A  story  is  told  of  the  boy's  interruption  of  a 
council  of  war.  This  habit  of  Tad's  enraged 
Secretary  Stanton,  whose  horror  of  the  boy  was 
similar  to  that  of  an  elephant  for  a  mouse.  The 
President  was  giving  his  opinion  on  a  certain 
piece  of  strategy  which  he  thought  the  general 
in  question  might  carry  out — ^when  a  great  noise 
was  heard  out  in  the  hall,  followed  by  a  number 
of  sharp  raps  on  the  door  of  the  cabinet  room. 

Strategy,  war,  everything  was,  for  the  mo- 
ment forgotten  by  the  President,  whose  wan  face 
assumed  an  expression  of  unusual  pleasure, 
while  he  gathered  up  his  great,  weary  length 
from  different  parts  of  the  room  as  he  had  half 
lain,  sprawling  about,  across  and  around  his 
chair  and  the  great  table. 

'^That's  Tad,"  he  exclaimed,  "I  wonder  what 
that  boys  wants  now. ' '  On  his  way  to  open  the 
door,  Mr.  Lincoln  explained  that  those  knocks 
had  just  been  adopted  by  the  boy  and  himself,  as 

213 


The  Story  of  Young 

part  of  the  telegraph  system,  and  that  he  was 
obliged  to  let  the  lad  in — ''for  it  wouldn't  do  to 
go  back  on  the  code  now,"  he  added,  half  in 
apology  for  permitting  such  a  sudden  break  in 
their  deliberations. 

When  the  door  was  opened.  Tad,  with  flushed 
face  and  sparkling  eyes,  sprang  in  and  threw  his 
arms  around  his  father's  neck.  The  President 
straightened  up  and  embraced  the  boy  with  an 
expression  of  happiness  never  seen  on  his  face 
except  while  playing  with  his  little  son. 

Mr.  Lincoln  turned,  with  the  boy  still  in  his 
arms,  to  explain  that  he  and  Tad  had  agreed 
upon  this  telegraphic  code  to  prevent  the  lad 
from  bursting  in  upon  them  without  warning. 
The  members  of  the  cabinet  looked  puzzled  or 
disgusted,  as  though  they  failed  to  see  that  sev- 
eral startling  raps  could  be  any  better  than  hav- 
ing Tad  break  in  with  a  whoop  or  a  wail,  as  had 
been  the  boy's  custom. 

ISSUING  THE  EXECUTIVE  ORDER  ON  PETER  FOR  PIE 

The  boy  raised  a  question  of  right.  He  had 
besieged  Peter,  the  colored  steward,  demanding 
that  a  dinner  be  served  to  several  urchins  he  had 
picked  up  outside — two  of  whom  were  sons  of 

214 


Abraham  Lincoln 

soldiers.  Peter  had  protested  that  he  ''had 
other  fish  to  fry"  just  then. 

The  President  recognized  at  once  that  this  was 
a  case  for  diplomacy.  Turning  to  various  mem- 
bers of  the  cabinet,  he  called  on  each  to  con- 
tribute from  his  store  of  wisdom,  what  would  be 
best  to  do  in  a  case  of  such  vast  importance. 
Tad  looked  on  in  wonder  as  his  father  set  the 
great  machinery  of  government  in  motion  to 
make  out  a  commissary  order  on  black  Peter, 
which  would  force  that  astonished  servant  to  de- 
liver certain  pieces  of  pie  and  other  desired  eat- 
ables to  Tad,  for  himself  and  his  boy  friends. 

At  last  an  "order"  was  prepared  by  the  Chief 
Executive  of  the  United  States  directing  ''The 
Commissary  Department  of  the  Presidential 
Residence  to  issue  rations  to  Lieutenant  Tad 
Lincoln  and  his  five  associates,  two  of  whom  are 
the  sons  of  soldiers  in  the  Army  of  the  Po- 
tomac." 

With  an  expression  of  deep  gravity  and  a  sol- 
emn flourish,  the  President  tendered  this  Com- 
missary Order  to  the  lieutenant,  his  son,  saying 
as  he  presented  the  document : 

"I  reckon  Peter  will  have  to  come  to  time 


now." 


215 


The  Story  of  Young 


CHAPTER  XIX 


Lieutenant  Tad  Lincoln,  Patriot 


There  was  no  more  sturdj'  little  patriot  in  the 
whole  country  than  Lieutenant  Tad  Lincoln, 
''the  child  of  the  nation,"  nor  had  the  President 
of  the  United  States  a  more  devoted  admirer 
and  follower  than  his  own  small  son.  A  word 
from  his  father  would  melt  the  lad  to  tears  and 
submission,  or  bring  him  out  of  a  nervous  tan- 
trum with  his  small  round  face  wreathed  with 
smiles,  and  a  chuckling  in  his  throat  of  ''Papa- 
day,  my  papa-day !"  No  one  knew  exactly  what 
the  boy  meant  by  papa-day.  It  was  his  pet  name 
for  the  dearest  man  on  earth,  and  it  was  his  only 
way  of  expressing  the  greatest  pleasure  his  boy- 
ish heart  was  able  to  hold.  It  was  the  "sweetest 
word  ever  heard"  by  the  war-burdened,  crushed 
and  sorrowing  soul  of  the  broken-hearted  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Lincoln  took  his  youngest  son  with  him 
everywhere — on  his  great  mission  to  Fortress 
Monroe,  and  they— "the  long  and  the  short  of 
it,"  the  soldiers  said— marched  hand  in  hand 

216 


Abraham  Lincoln 

through  the  streets  of  fallen  Richmond.  The 
understanding  between  the  man  and  the  boy  was 
so  complete  and  sacred,  that  some  acts  which 
seemed  to  outsiders  absurd  and  ill-fitting,  be- 
came perfectly  right  and  proper  when  certain 
unknown  facts  were  taken  into  account. 

WAVING  THE  **  STARS  AND  BAES"  OUT  OF  A  WHITE 

HOUSE  WINDOW 

For  instance,  one  night,  during  an  enthusi- 
astic serenade  at  the  "White  House,  after  a  great 
victory  of  the  northern  armies,  when  the  Presi- 
dent had  been  out  and  made  a  happy  speech  in 
response  to  the  congratulations  he  had  received, 
everybody  was  horrified  to  see  the  Confederate 
^' Stars  and  Bars"  waving  frantically  from  an 
upper  window  with  shouts  followed  by  shrieks 
as  old  Edward,  the  faithful  colored  servant, 
pulled  in  the  flag  and  the  boy  who  was  guilty  of 
the  mischief. 

/'That  was  little  Tad!"  exclaimed  some  one  in 
the  crowd.  Many  laughed,  but  some  spectators 
thought  the  boy  ought  to  be  punished  for  such  a 
treasonable  outbreak  on  the  part  of  a  Presi- 
dent's boy  in  a  soldier's  uniform. 

^'If  he  don't  know  any  better  than  that,"  said 

217 


The  Story  of  Young 

one  man,  ^'he  should  be  taught  better.  It's  an 
insult  to  the  North  and  the  President  ought  to 
stop  it  and  apologize,  too." 

*^BOYS  IN"  blue''  and  '^BOYS  IN  GRAY" 

But  little  Tad  understood  his  father's  spirit 
better  than  the  crowd  did.  He  knew  that  the 
President's  love  was  not  confined  to  ''the  Boys 
in  Blue,"  but  that  his  heart  went  out  also  to  ''the 
Boys  in  Gray."  The  soldiers  were  all  "boys"  to 
him.  They  knew  he  loved  them.  They  said 
among  themselves:  "He  cares  for  us.  He  takes 
our  part.  We  will  fight  for  him ;  yes,  we  will  die 
for  him." 

And  a  large  part  of  the  common  soldier's  pa- 
triotism was  this  heart-response  of  "the  boj^s" 
to  the  great  "boy"  in  the  White  House.  That 
was  the  meaning  of  their  song  as  they  trooped  to 
the  front  at  his  call : 

"We  are  coming,  Father  Abraham; 
Three  hundred  thousand  more." 

Little  Taa  saw  plenty  of  evidences  of  his 
father's  love  for  the  younger  soldiers — the  real 
boys  of  the  army.  Going  always  with  the  Presi- 
dent, he  had  heard  his  "Papa-day"  say  of  sev- 

218 


Abraham  Lincoln 

eral  youths  condemned  to  be  shot  for  sleeping  at 
their  post  or  some  like  offense : 

''That  boy  is  worth  more  above  ground  than 
under;"  or,  ''A  live  boy  can  serve  his  country 
better  than  a  dead  one." 

''Give  the  boys  a  chance,"  was  Abraham  Lin- 
coln's motto.  He  hadn't  had  much  of  a  chance 
himself  and  he  wanted  all  other  boys  to  have  a 
fair  show.  His  o^vn  father  had  been  too  hard 
with  him,  and  he  was  going  to  make  it  up  to  all 
the  other  boys  he  could  reach.  This  passion  for 
doing  good  to  others  began  in  the  log  cabin  when 
he  had  no  idea  he  could  ever  be  exercising  his 
loving  kindness  in  the  Executive  Mansion — the 
Home  of  the  Nation.  "With  malice  toward 
none,  with  charity  for  all,"  was  the  rule  of  his 
life  in  the  backwoods  as  well  as  in  the  National 
Capital. 

And  "the  Boys  in  Gray"  were  his  "boys,"  too, 
but  they  didn't  understand,  so  they  had  wan- 
dered away — they  were  a  little  wayward,  but  he 
would  win  them  back.  The  great  chivalrous 
South  has  learned,  since  those  bitter,  ruinous 
days,  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  best  friend 
the  South  then  had  in  the  North.  Tad  had  seen 
his  father  show  great  tenderness  to   all  the 

219 


The  Story  of  Young 


a 


boys"  he  met  in  the  gray  uniform,  but  the 
President  had  few  opportunities  to  show  his 
tenderness  to  the  South — though  there  was  a  se- 
cret pigeonhole  in  his  desk  stu:ffed  full  of  threats 
of  assassination.  He  was  not  afraid  of  death — 
indeed,  he  was  glad  to  die  if  it  would  do  his 
*'boys"  and  the  country  any  good.  But  it  hurt 
him  deep  in  his  heart  to  know  that  some  of  his 
beloved  children  misunderstood  him  so  that  they 
were  willing  to  kill  him ! 

It  was  no  one's  bullet  which  made  Abraham 
Lincoln  a  martvr.  All  his  life  he  had  shown  the 
spirit  of  love  which  was  willing  to  give  his  very 
life  if  it  could  save  or  help  others. 

All  these  things  little  Tad  could  not  have  ex- 
plained, but  they  were  inbred  into  the  deep  un- 
derstanding of  the  big  father  and  the  small  son 
who  were  living  in  the  White  House  as  boys  to- 
gether. 

MR.  Lincoln's  last  speech  and  how  tad  helped 

A  few  days  after  the  war  ended  at  Appomat- 
tox, a  great  crowd  came  to  the  Wliite  House  to 
serenade  the  President.  It  was  Tuesday  even- 
ing, April  11,  1865.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  written  a 
short  address  for  the  occasion.    The  times  were 

220 


Abraham  Lincoln 

so  out  of  joint  and  every  word  was  so  important 
that  the  President  could  not  trust  himself  to 
speak  off-hand. 

A  friend  stepped  out  on  the  northern  portico 
with  him  to  hold  the  candle  by  which  Mr.  Lin- 
coln w^as  to  read  his  speech.  Little  Tad  was  with 
his  father,  as  usual,  and  when  the  President  had 
finished  reading  a  page  of  his  manuscript  he  let 
it  flutter  down,  like  a  leaf,  or  a  big  white  butter- 
fly, for  Tad  to  catch.  When  the  pages  came  too 
slowly  the  boy  pulled  his  father's  coat-tail,  pip- 
ing up  in  a  muffled,  excited  tone : 

''Give  me  'nother  paper.  Papa-day." 

To  the  few  in  the  front  of  the  crowd  who  wit- 
nessed this  little  by-play  it  seemed  ridiculous 
that  the  President  of  the  United  States  should 
allow  any  child  to  behave  like  that  and  hamper 
him  while  delivering  a  great  address  which 
would  wield  a  national,  if  not  world-wide  influ- 
ence. But  little  Tad  did  not  trouble  his  father 
in  the  least.  It  was  a  part  of  the  little  game  they 
were  constantly  playing  together. 

The  address  opened  with  these  words : 

"Fellow-citizens:  We  meet  this 
evening  not  in  sorrow,  bu.t  gladness  of 
heart.     The  evacuation  of  Petersburg 

221 


The  Story;  of  Young 

and  Richmond,  and  the  surrender  of 
the  principal  insurgent  army  (at  Ap^ 
pomattox)  give  hope  of  a  righteous 
and  speedy  peace  whose  joyous  expres- 
sion cannot  be  restrained.  In  the  midst 
of  this,  however,  He  from  whom  all 
blessings  flow  must  not  be  forgotten.  A 
call  for  national  thanksgi^dng  is  being 
prepared  and  will  be  duly  promul- 
gated." 

^'give  us  ^dixie,'  boys!" 

Then  he  went  on  outlining  a  policy  ol  peace 
and  friendship  toward  the  South— showing  a 
spirit  far  higher  and  more  advanced  than  that  of 
the  listening  crowd.  On  concluding  his  address 
and  bidding  the  assembled  multitude  good  night, 
he  turned  to  the  serenading  band  and  shouted 
joyously: 

' '  Give  us  '  Dixie, '  boys ;  play '  Dixie. '  We  have 
a  right  to  that  tune  now. ' ' 

There  was  a  moment  of  silence.  Some  of  the 
people  gasped,  as  they  had  done  when  they  saw 
Tad  waving  the  Confederate  flag  at  the  window. 
But  the  band,  loyal  even  to  a  mere  whim  (as  they 
then  thought  it)  of  **Father  Abraham,"  started 
the  long-forbidden  tune,  and  the  President,  bow- 

222 


Abraham  Lincoln 

ing,  retired,  with  little  Tad,  within  the  White 
House.  Those  words,  ^'Give  us  'Dixie,'  boys," 
were  President  Lincoln's  last  public  utterance. 

As  Mr.  Lincoln  came  in  through  the  door  after 
speaking  to  the  crowd,  Mrs.  Lincoln — ^who  had 
been,  with  a  group  of  friends,  looking  on  from 
within — exclaimed  to  him: 

**  You  must  not  be  so  careless.  Some  one  could 
easily  have  shot  you  while  you  were  speaking 
there — and  you  know  they  are  threatening  your 
life  I" 

The  President  smiled  at  his  wife,  through  a 
look  of  inexpressible  pain  and  sadness,  and 
shrugged  his  great  shoulders,  but  ''still  he  an- 
swered not  a  word." 

THE  SEPARATION"  OF  THE  TWO  "bOTS" 

At  a  late  hour  Good  Friday  night,  that  same 
week,  little  Tad  came  in  alone  at  a  basement  door 
of  the  White  House  from  the  National  Theater, 
where  he  knew  the  manager,  and  some  of  the 
company,  had  made  a  great  pet  of  him.  He  had 
often  gone  there  alone  or  with  his  tutor.  How 
he  had  heard  the  terrible  news  from  Ford's 
Theater  is  not  known,  but  he  came  up  the  lower 
stairway  with  heartrending  cries  like  a  wounded 

223 


The  Story  of  Young 

animal.     Seeing  Thomas  Pendel,  the  faithful 
doorkeeper,  he  vrailed  from  his  breakmg  heart : 
'*Tom  Pen,  Tom  Pen,  they  have  killed  Papa- 
day  I    They  have  killed  my  Papa-day ! ' ' 

After  the  funeral  the  little  fellow  was  more 
lonely  than  ever.  It  was  hard  to  have  his  pony 
burned  up  in  the  stable.  It  was  harder  still  to 
lose  Brother  Willie,  his  constant  companion, 
and  now  his  mother  v\'as  desperately  ill,  and  his 
father  had  been  killed.  Tad,  of  course,  could  not 
comprehend  why  any  one  could  be  so  cruel  and 
wicked  as  to  wish  to  murder  his  darling  Papa- 
day,  who  loved  ever}-  one  so ! 

He  wandered  through  the  empty  rooms, 
aching  with  loneliness,  murmuring  softly  to  him- 
self: 

** Papa-day,  where 's  my  Papa-day.  I'm  tired 
— tired  of  playing  alone.  I  want  to  play  to- 
gether. Please,  Papa-day,  come  back  and  play 
with  your  little  Tad." 

Young  though  he  was  he  could  not  sleep  long 
at  night.  His  sense  of  loneliness  penetrated  his 
dreams.  Sometimes  he  would  chuckle  and 
gurgle  in  an  ecstacy,  as  he  had  done  when  riding 
on  his  father's  back,  romping  through  the  stately 

224 


ii- 
ii- 


Abraham  Lincoln 

rooms.  He  would  tlirow  his  arm  about  the  neck 
of  the  doorkeeper  or  lifeguard  who  had  lain 
down  beside  him  to  console  the  boy  and  try  to  get 
him  to  sleep.  When  the  man  spoke  to  comfort 
him,  Tad  would  find  out  his  terrible  mistake, 
that  his  father  was  not  with  him. 

Then  he  would  wail  again  in  the  bitterness  of 
his  disappointment : 

'Papa-day,  where 's  my  Papa-day?" 
'Your  papa's  gone  'way  off" — said  his  com- 
panion, his  voice  breaking  with  emotion — "gone 
to  heaven." 

Tad  opened  his  eyes  wide  with  wonder.  "Is 
Papa-day  happy  in  heaven?"  he  asked  eagerly. 

"Yes,  yes,  I'm  sure  he's  happy  there,  Taddie 
dear;  now  go  to  sleep." 

"Papa-day's  happy.  I'm  glad — so  glad!" — 
sighed  the  little  boy — "for  Papa-day  never  was 
happy  here. ' ' 

Then  he  fell  into  his  first  sweet  sleep  since  that 
terrible  night. 

"give  the  boys  a  chance" 

The  fond-hearted  little  fellow  went  abroad 
with  his  mother  a  few  years  after  the  tragedy 

225 


The  Story  of  Young 

that  broke  both  their  lives.  By  a  surgical  opera- 
tion, and  by  struggling  manfully,  he  had  cor- 
rected the  imperfection  in  his  speech.  But  the 
heart  of  little  Tad  had  been  broken.  While  still 
a  lad  he  joined  his  fond  father  in  the  Beyond. 

^'Give  the  boys  a  chance,"  had  amounted  to  a 
passion  with  Abraham  Lincoln,  yet  through 
great  wickedness  and  sad  misunderstandings  his 
own  little  son  was  robbed  of  this  great  boon. 
Little  Tad  had  been  denied  the  one  chance  he 
sorely  needed  for  his  very  existence.  For  this, 
as  for  all  the  inequities  the  great  heart  of  the 
White  House  was  prepared.  His  spirit  had 
shone  through  his  whole  life  as  if  in  letters  of 
living  fire ; 

"With  malice  toward  none;  with  charity  for 
aU.'» 

THE  END 


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